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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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The Great Question 



Twelve Lessons in the Faith 



BY / 

EPHRAIM CHAMBERLAIN CUMMINGS 



Tkis is the work of Gody that ye believe on Him 
whom He hath sent, John vi. 29. 



PORTLAND: 

HOYT, FOGG & DONHAM. 

1878. 



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COPYRIGHT, 
HOYT, FOGG & DONHAM, 

1878. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction. 



I. 
What is the Question ? • . • . 9 

II. 
Whence the Answer? • . • • 19 

III. 
Have we done Right? .... 33 

IV. 
What has been done to set us Right? 45 

V. 
What shall we do then ? . . . 55 

VI. 
Review: Faith the sum of Duty, . . 66 

VII. 
Our Lord's Ministry : Faith and the Faith. 75 



IV CONTENTS. 

VIII. 
Symbol of the Faith : Holy Baptism. . 89 

IX. 
Fellowship of the Faith : Holy Com- 
munion. ...... 109 

X. 

Trial of the Faith: The Cross. . . 119 

XI. 
Triumph of the Faith : The Resurrection. 128 

XII. 
End of the Faith : God all in all. • 138 



INTRODUCTION. 



If these twelve lessons are too serious 
to be easily entertaining, they are also 
too short to be very fatiguing. They 
were prepared in the belief that to think, 
soberly is indispensable to a pious dispo- 
sition. A man's Christian life is not 
likely, for the time, to be better than his 
ideas and thoughts about Christ and 
His teaching. The lessons are for 
those who want to think soberly ; for 
those who, like the ''Catechumens " in 
the primitive church, have the hearing 
ear as well as ears to hear. 

Early in the Christian era, when ''Cat- 
echumens," having been taught the ele- 
ments of religion by word of mouth, 
were about to become " Believers " or 
'* Faithful," — in other words, to come into 



b INTRODUCTION. 

full communion in the church, not only 
their knowledge but their life was in- 
quired into, '^ whether they have fulfilled 
every good work." Yet their instruction 
was not made up of moral precepts 
alone. They were initiated into the his- 
tory of revelation, in the words of Bun- 
sen, " from Adam, the father of mankind, 
and Abraham, in whom all nations were 
blessed, down to Christ, whose life and 
death formed the centre of this hallowed 
history of the human race.'' 

We of this day also begin life in the 
family and Sunday-school as '' Catechu- 
mens," with a view to our becoming, in 
due time, established in the faith and 
members in full communion of the Chris- 
tian church. It is common to teach the 
Bible to the young in Sunday-school 
lessons taken here and there. But the 
course of revelation in the progress of 
mankind, the ^' hallowed history of the 
human race," is perhaps not duly im- 
pressed upon us. What else is there so 



INTRODUCTION. T 

important, and at the same time so 
little attended to, as the historic connec- 
tion of God's teaching from first to last : 
how He appears as beginning, continu- 
ing and fulfilling His word, in order that 
we might be led to begin, continue and 
fulfill our faith ? 

Hence the plan of these lessons. It 
was needful that each should present a 
view somewhat distinct and full in itself; 
and, of course, the general progress 
could only be from one point of view to 
another : the aim being to exhibit the 
one reality of divine revelation in its 
most vital and self-evident aspects; and 
so, by leading on toward a fullness of un- 
derstanding and motive, to help the ad- 
vance of earnest young disciples from 
early training to confirmed Christian 
character. 

Such as the effort is, I offer it to good 
learners in our Sunday-schools with an 
extract from the ancient prayers of the 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

church of Antioch, as recorded by St. 
Chrysostom : 

*' Let us pray earnestly for the Cate- 
chumens, that the all-loving and all- 
merciful God may hear their prayer ; 
that he may open the ears of their hearts, 
in order that they may perceive what no 
eye hath seen, no ear hath heard, and 
what is not come into the heart of any 
one ; that He may teach them the word 
of truth, and that He may sow in their 
hearts the seed of the fear of God ; that 
He may strengthen the faith in their 
hearts ; that He may reveal to them the 
gospel of righteousness ; that He may 
give them a godlike mind, pure thoughts, 
and a virtuous life, always to think what 
is of God, to meditate what is of God, 
to care for what is of God." 

Portland Feb. 9, 1878. 



THE GREAT QUESTION. 



LITTLE CHILDREN, LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU ; HE 
THAT DOETH RIGHTEOUSNESS IS RIGHTEOUS. — 

I yohn Hi. 7. 

WHAT is the great question ? 
The great question for every 
person is, '' What shall I do ? " 

Is it not, ^'What shall I do to be 
saved ?" 

Yes ; only, there is no being saved to 
be thought about otherwise than as in- 
separably one with our doing what we 
ought to do. We are made to do. 
Something is given us to enjoy, and 
something is given us to suffer ; but it 
is what we do in enjoying or in suffering 
that settles the question whether either 
is good for us or not. Conduct is the 
great thing. 



10 WHAT SHALL I DO ? 

We live in doing. All my powers are 
mine in my using of them. If I use 
them ill, I degrade them, and put them 
to doing something worse than what 
they might have done. Therefore, if I 
am to be, I must do. If I am to be my 
best, I must do my best. What shall I 
do.'^ It is the whole question of duty, 
and as such it is the whole question of 
destiny. 

Now see if this is not important. 
The question of duty is peculiarly mine 
and mine always. It is that blessed 
inquiry wherein my nature may take 
counsel all the time with the mind 
that is above me. But destiny is far 
reaching, liable at any instant to take in 
new conditions, and is altogether too 
vast and complex to be detailed. It is 
in the power and grace of Him who 
made and governs all. And so it is 
safe. It is good for us, strangers in the 
earth and inexperienced in life, to ask 
God not to hide His commandments 



WHAT SHALL I DO ? 11 

from us ; and it is equally good to com- 
mit all our interests to His keeping in 
the way of hearty obedience. Seek 
what you ought to do, and do it, how- 
ever hard it may be ; but whatever else 
you do, fail not to have confidence in 
God as to everything that can befall 
you. '' Salvation will God appoint for 
walls and bulwarks." 

'* What shall I do.'^ " is the question of 
simple loyalty. But, '' what shall I do 
to be saved } " — ''what good thing shall 
I do that I may have eternal life .-^ " — 
''what shall I do to inherit eternal 
life } " — these questions may indicate a 
working toward simplicity and loyalty, 
and they may imply a self-seeking which 
is our great sin and danger. What shall 
I do .^ is the question of those who listened 
to John the Baptist, the question of those 
who were pricked in the heart by the 
words of Peter, the question of the 
straight-forward and conscientious Saul 
prostrate before the first vision of his 



12 WHAT SHALL I DO? 

King. Is it not better than the ques- 
tion of the jailor at Phihppi, better than 
the question of the young man who 
went away sorrowful, or the question of 
the lawyer who wanted to put our Lord 
to the test of an examination ? Why 
ask special guarantees or particular 
terms of our perfect Sovereign ? If we 
cannot trust our bodies and souls in His 
keeping, it is better to suffer the pains 
of doubt and fear until we can. Our 
question is, ''What shall I do ?" 

The question may come out at partic- 
ular instants with regard to special acts. 
But the question reaches to everything. 
There is no power and no relation which 
it does not take in. What shall this organ 
do } It shall do whatever it was made 
to do, if it be perfectly played upon. 
We are played upon by every touch of 
God's fingers reaching us through His 
works. We shall do what we were in- 
tended to do, if we do what his touch de- 
mands. It should be one music going 



WHAT SHALL I DO ? 13 

up in the sounds of industry, and in the 
voices of worship. Every creature is 
made to serve a purpose, and that pur- 
pose takes in the right action of all 
powers, whether high or low. You 
must have your daily bread; what shall 
you do to gain it ? Here is a great 
question. But it is great chiefly because 
it comes in as a part of that other ques- 
tion of what you shall do, namely, what 
you shall do for the life that is more 
than meat and for the bread that cometh 
down from heaven. Very little, indeed, 
does it signify what we eat and drink, 
or wherewithal we are clothed, if we are 
to have nothing to do with the kingdom 
of God and righteousness. But all in- 
terests are covered by the great ques- 
tion, because the question has regard to 
all our doings. 

What we do is all we know about 
what we are. We judge ourselves al- 
ways, and we shall always be judged 
according to our doings. The great 



14 WHAT SHALL I DO ? 

question takes due account of various 
distinctions in the same thing. We 
talk of toiling and resting, of working 
and waiting, of hearing and obeying, of 
believing and acting. We understand 
how these different words explain and 
support each other ; we understand, 
also, that they all go together to set 
forth the one reality of doing. Not to 
do one thing is to do something else ; 
and whatever you do, it indicates some- 
thing else that you have done or will do. 
For the three disciples not to watch 
with Jesus in the garden was to fall 
asleep through the weakness of the 
flesh. That was what they did. It 
seemed too little to do, but it was proof 
of something else. They were sleeping 
for sorrovv — the natural force exhausted 
by the grief of their spirits — not the 
flesh ruling by reason of their hardness 
of heart. But all that they were was in 
what they were doing. For Peter not 
to trust his destiny with Jesus when he 



WHAT SHALL I DO ? 15 

had been permitted to go to meet Him 
on the water was to feel the dread of 
sinking in the waves. When, of a sud- 
den, he found his faith small and his 
fear great, he did not take time to ask 
what he should do ; he did what he 
could do. He cried, ''Lord, save me." 

So we see very clearly at last that the 
great question brings us into great fel- 
lowship. It is not for a human creature 
to ask or answer the great question by 
himself alone. If the great question is 
pressing into our thoughts, it is because 
a thought infinitely greater and better 
than any of ours is working in our mind. 
Think what things are in the Bible, and 
you will begin to see what interest God 
takes in the question of what we shall 
do. He is always calling upon men 
to do what is right^ because not to do 
what is right is to do what is wrong. 
He is ever inviting us to work with 
Him — not as if He had some great 
project for using our efforts, and were 



16 WHAT SHALL I DO ? 

leaving us to drive a bargain for our 
welfare, but as if our welfare were un- 
speakably dear to Him, and not to 
be secured without our doing as He 
directs. 

When the tempter tried to draw Jesus 
away from doing the will of the Father 
into doing something else, his great pre- 
tense was that Jesus would gain some- 
thing or save Himself trouble thereby. 
He took the Saviour into a high moun- 
tain to give Him large views, and sug- 
gested a fatal venture as a way of win- 
ning great glory. But Jesus trying to 
induce us to do the will of the Father, 
takes us to heavenly heights, where the 
kingdoms of this world and the glory of 
them look very small, and where, though 
He never conceals from us the risks we 
run, the sufferings of this present time 
seem small also. He wants us to be 
with Him and doing the things that He 
says. He is called Saviour; but He offers 
no salvation but in offering service in 



WHAT SHALL I DO? 17 

His kingdom. He is the King that takes 
account of His servants. He is the Hus- 
bandman that hires laborers in His vine- 
yard. He is the Master who pays the 
penny a day, and the Lord who wel- 
comes the good and faithful servant to 
His own joy. He is the Wonder-worker, 
who teaches men what they are to do 
that they may work the works of God ; 
and He is the Fountain of life, out of 
whom goeth virtue to heal and invigor- 
ate those who touch Him and those 
whom He touches. 

The great question may divide itself 
into many questions. What shall I do ? 
This asks, What has been done for me } 
What have I done ? What is proposed 
to be done for me now ? What am I 
ready to do ? Questions these on which 
we may say something, if God permit. 
But meanwhile we must do something; 
and whatever else we may be ignorant 
of, there is evermore this most precious 
and comfortable duty for us to do : We 



18 WHAT SHALL I DO ? 

are to believe and be sure that our God 
and Saviour doeth all things well. It is 
not for us to pass a day of this mortal 
life without the joy of faith in God. 
Living in this faith we shall find not 
even the cloudless heaven of summer 
so sweet or so beautiful as the prayer 
which this faith sends up, beginning with 

'' @ur (Jfat^er, faba art m ^tairtn/' 



II. 



WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE MORE TO MY 
VINEYARD, THAT I HAVE NOT DONE IN IT? — 

Isaiah v, 4. 

WHOEVER asks the great ques- 
tion does not ask it of empty 
space or of idle beings. The great an- 
swer anticipates our great question, in 
order that we may have real and prompt 
repHes day by day, according to the 
inquiries we make. 

In this way it comes to pass, that 
" What shall I do ? " is always con- 
cerned with another question, namely, 
*' What has been done for me ? " 

'' Son, go work to-day in my vineyard." 
Our Lord does not say in the parable 
that each of the two sons was asking in 
so many words *' what shall I do } " 



20 WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR ME ? 

But He does lead us to think that no in- 
dolence or thoughtlessness on the part 
of the sons, such as might keep them 
from seriously asking the great question, 
would hinder the good and prudent 
father from giving them a serious answer 
to the question unasked. 

But the father could not say, "Son, 
go work to-day in my vineyard/' unless 
he had made such provision for giving 
his son something to do as would justify 
the command. What must the father 
have done ? 

He must have made ready the vine- 
yard. 

He must have set in order some 
things to be done. 

He must have brought up his son to 
do the kind of work required of him. 

Now if you will read the parable re- 
ferred to, in the twenty-first chapter ol 
Matthew, you will find that it is just as 
true and just as plain when you take its 
higher meaning as when you take its 



WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR ME ? 21 

lower meaning. In fact, the two mean- 
ings are one. What is done by the 
Creator and Father of all for His chil- 
dren, however far it may reach beyond 
our thoughts, is just as simply kind and 
well meaning in its nature, as anything 
that could have been done for his chil- 
dren by the man who had two sons. 
For, what has been done for every one 
of us by our Creator ? 

He has made ready the world in 
which we are. 

He has set in order the things for us 
to do. 

He has brought us up to do the kind 
of work required of us. 

It is strictly true, then, that every- 
thing has been done for us. It is by 
the seal of our Heavenly Father's love, 
and by the signs of His wise forecast in 
the things done by Him, that we are to 
be assured of what things He would 
have us do. 

But this truth is very general. It is 



22 WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR ME ? 

without bounds, like the air, and we can- 
not take it all in. Yes ; and like the air, 
it is near and pressing also, so that we 
cannot help taking it in, according to 
our measure. For, as we can breathe 
the air without need of knowing how far 
it extends, and yet the air must be 
everywhere lest we should come to a 
place where no breathing could go on ; 
so the truth, of which we cannot help 
knowing something, must be infinite as 
the wisdom of God, — or it could not be 
the soul's living breath — always and 
everywhere ready to flow in with our 
common thoughts. 

The air is a life-giving presence. 
Whither shall one go from this pres- 
ence ? Whither shall one flee from this 
breath ? Go up above the clouds ; the 
air is there. Go down into the deepest 
caverns ; the air has rushed in before. 
Take the wings of the wind and dwell 
in the uttermost parts of the sea ; the 
same breath of God preserves and up- 



WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR ME ? 23 

holds you. Day and night the air is 
with you. Every breathing creature 
takes it in, and lets it go out, only to 
take it in again. Coming in the air 
always brings new life; and it bears 
away from us the seeds of death as it 
goes out. 

Do we say — we cannot understand 
the air because it is so large ? No ; but 
because it is so large we can understand 
it. If there were not the upper air, we 
could not have the lower air. But since 
there is the air everywhere — coming in 
and going out, sweeping hither and 
thither in great gales and gentle breezes, 
that it may be kept pure and lively — 
we can work with the air: we can 
build houses to shelter us from rough 
winds ; we can let fresh air in as fast 
as foul air goes out; we can feel 
through the air the sweet warmth of the 
summer sun ; or, if it be winter, we can 
have a fire to bring special sunshine in- 
to house and heart; — and all because the 



24 WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR ME ? 

air is so great with the greatness of God, 
and so ready to do the will of God for 
us ; while the sun shines for us^ and the 
forests grpw for us, and the coal is 
treasured up for us, and all things work 
together for us. 

The air is the gift of love, but God is 
Love. When the wind was too rough 
on the lake, our Saviour rebuked the 
wind. Can you not almost hear Him 
saying, '' Hush, O wind; you were 
meant for good, and now you seem like- 
ly to do mischief .^" Thus Love works 
with the air, when the tempest is stilled, 
and when succor is brought to the tem- 
pest-tossed. We breathe life and love 
in our native air^ and when love is 
strong within us, we, in our way, can 
rebuke the rough winds and freezing 
cold by the help we carry to the poor 
and exposed. 

Does the air ever let us off from our 
learning ? By no means. The tempest 
and the miasma are for love's sake : — 



WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR ME ? 25 

that we may gain the faith and wisdom 
to rebuke them when they would do us 
harm ; or, that we may suffer the rebuke 
and correction which they will justly 
bring upon us, if we neglect their teach- 
ing. This air, which our Creator gives 
to keep us alive, is endowed with an 
energy to work with us and teach us 
how to live. It presses upon us its own 
proper service, and punishes our negli- 
gence and abuse. 

Is not water our teacher also ? Water 
is very great and marvellous. How 
vast, deep, fearful it is in oceans and 
seas ; though so very beautiful by fertile 
shores. How it mounts into the air to 
meet the sun ; and the atoms, that went 
up fearless and alone, come together and 
sail aloft in resplendent clouds. But, by 
and by, down it plunges in drops too 
heavy for the air to hold up ; and then 
fields and woods are watered, brooks 
that run among the hills are merry, 
rivers flow on with full banks to the sea. 



26 WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR ME ? 

Thus all the time reservoirs are full^, 
fountains gush out, streams run on, 
vapor flies up, showers or snows fall 
down — an endless round. 

What could we do without the water- 
works of God ? But with them we 
can have the water-works of man : we 
can have the cottage by the spring, 
the watering-place for cattle, the well 
dug deep, pipes to bring the water 
of lake or river to cities, and smaller 
pipes to distribute the water to all the 
houses. 

Thus we can drink, or give to drink, 
a cup of cold water in the name of Him 
whose disciples we are. There is so 
much water for the express purpose of 
securing to every living thing the little 
it must have. Water means life and 
love. Water means abundance and dis- 
tribution. Those are wells of salvation 
from which water is drawn. Without 
water we could not have the comfort 
of sunshine, the kindly fruits of the 



WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR ME ? 27 

earth — could not have the bread of 
life. With water, what gardens, fields 
and forests ! What fruits pleasant to 
the sight and good for food ! What 
does the rain from heaven teach ? 
What do the fruitful seasons say? What 
are sun, moon and stars telling ? All 
are but different letters of one word — 
God! 

When the Word by whom all things 
were made, comes to us as a man, and 
begins to teach us our A B C — the let- 
ters and syllables of His name and 
character — how does He do it ? He 
points to the things that are made. The 
air is like His teaching ; for His words 
are spirit and life. He calls Himself the 
living bread, the living water, the life 
itself — yea, the resurrection of the dead. 
He is the Sun of Righteousness, and 
He is the bright and morning Star. He 
is the meaning of every thing 1: y itself, 
and of all things together in the whole 
creation of God. 



28 WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR ME ? 

We must not forget that in air, earth, 
fire and water there is brought to us the 
teaching of what to do and what not to 
do with these elements. In things that 
live and grow there is the teaching of 
what to do with things that live and 
grow. In laws and rulers and teachers 
there is instruction as to what we are to 
do with laws and rulers and teachers. 
But notice this especially : — We have 
teachers like ourselves, teachers of our 
own flesh and blood, teachers that speak 
to us in words that we can understand 
instantly ; that we may not be too slow, 
and suffer too much, in learning from 
the things that are made with nobody 
to tell us what the things mean. Thus 
all things are immeasurably more to 
you and me, because they have been so 
much to others. Others have gone be- 
fore us and prepared our way. Truth 
treasured up in the universe of God has 
been sought out by docile, inquiring 
men ; and they have dealt it out to us, 



WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR ME ? 29 

line upon line and precept upon precept. 
The thought and experience of all 
thinking beings are for us — as inspira- 
tion, example, or warning. 

Sleep in a close room all night, and 
the air becomes bad. But the sun rises ; 
the air is fresh without ; the birds sing ; 
the dew is on the grass ; what does it 
all mean ? If you are sleeping heavily, 
the windows closed, you are not aware 
of what God is saying in the world's 
new day. But now comes a voice at the 
door or under the window. It may be 
the voice of father, mother, brother, 
sister, friend; yet the voice is of God, 
as much as the day is of God. The 
voice is for you. What does it say } It 
says just what nature says: ''The sun 
is up ; the air is sweet ; the dew is like 
diamonds ; the birds are in full chorus.'' 
You, heavy with sleep, are not asking 
''what shall I do .^ " The voice is not 
literally telling you what you shall do. 
But the voice stirs you up to doing. It 



30 WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR ME? 

calls you up from the likeness of death 
to the reality of life. 

Just so we, asleep in our flesh and 
untaught at first as to all the treasures 
of wisdom and knowledge in Jesus 
Christ and His blessed kingdom, are 
made to hear voices of prophets, voices 
of apostles — the voice of our Lord him- 
self; that we may awake to the joy of 
thinking, of believing, of loving, of giv- 
ing, — in short, of doing the will of God. 
Duty is boundless as light and eternal 
as life ; and so it always waits around 
us, wherever we may be. It will not let 
us escape. Its voice is within us ; its 
requirements are here, and they are 
there. We find God's service in the 
world of greatness and glory, — in the 
worship and wonder with which we fol- 
low the sun's course in his tabernacle 
or look up to the heights of the star-lit 
temple. We find God's service also in 
the world of little spaces and common 
cares, — in houses and gardens, in fields 



WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR ME ? 31 

and work-shops. Day uttereth speech 
unto day, and night unto night show- 
eth knowledge. Though in one sense 
there is no speech, no language, and 
their voice is not heard ; in another 
sense there is no speech nor language 
where their voice is not heard. Their 
sound has gone out into all lands, 
and their words unto the ends of the 
world. 

But what psalmist can recite the 
wonderful works of God on our be- 
half.^ And, were all human voices to 
join again and again in the chorus — 
'' For His mercy endureth forever ; " — 
what would that mean but that His 
praise and our service must also endure 
forever } 

God has made it His glory to do every- 
thing for our good. He has made it our 
good to do all things to His glory. We 
live by air, by water, by bread; but not 
by these alone. We live by every word 
of God. There is the breath of grace 



82 WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR ME ? 

and truth for our spirits, the water of 
everlasting life for our souls, the bread 
that came down from Heaven — teaching 
us that our meat and drink is to do the 
will of the Father. 

® Iforlr 0f )^a$U, hU^^b i» tint mm that trttstei|[ 
in f ifefjeje. 



III. 

WHAT IS THIS THAT THOU HAST DONE ? Gen, Hi. I3. 

T^HIS that thou hast done'' may 
JL refer to a single outward act — 
to be taken account of as respects its 
motive and consequences. 

Again, it may refer not merely to 
particular acts, but also to a habit of 
doing contracted in a course of action 
— the habit showing a physical tenden- 
cy or moral disposition such as makes 
particular acts to be better understood. 

What he has done is always of vital 
significance to the doer — whether, as 
compared with what has been done for 
him, or as respects what he shall do- 
We cannot have God's work of creation 
without having God's work of govern- 
3 



d4 OUR DOINGS HOW KNOWN. 

ment. The Creator has so surrounded 
us with his works, that we cannot move 
at all without having our doings com- 
bined with His operations. In this way 
our actions are perpetually followed up 
with consequences that take place ac- 
cording to God's will ; and His doing for 
us, far from being completed in an orig- 
inal creation, is continued without any 
interruption in the course of nature and 
history. Thus we have not only to 
learn at first what we ought to do by 
means of what has been done for us, 
but we are, at any time, to come to the 
knowledge of what we have been doing 
in the same way. 

God is dealing with us as with chil- 
dren. He governs and disciplines us 
every day; and his treatment of us 
must of course exhibit wise variations 
to suit the kind of character each of us 
is working out for himself It is by 
Him indeed that parents and teachers 
here below are led to deal with each 



OUR DOINGS — HOW KNOWN. 35 

child according to what is due to that 
child. 

How very soon the story of the things 
that were originally made is ended in 
the Holy Scriptures ! It is like one 
blessed week of holy innocency — the 
morning stars singing together and all 
the sons of God shouting for joy — com- 
pared with the ages of mingled sorrow 
and gladness that have come upon the 
world since. 

When Adam and Eve had disobeyed 
the command of God, then God's treat- 
ment of those first children was at once 
adjusted to their conduct. As soon as 
the record passes from creation to gov- 
ernment, every page and line and word 
of the Bible takes a character and color 
from human nature and from human 
action. God's purpose and procedure 
appear as patiently accommodated to 
our necessities. 

It is hard to train men of sharp senses 
and strong appetites to believe the tru- 



36 OUR DOINGS HOW KNOWN. 

est word and to follow the best teach- 
ing ; and so the things that were meant 
for life must sometimes turn to ministers 
of death — for man's warning and cor- 
rection. Strange disturbances in nature 
and great struggles of men with each 
other cannot but be looked upon as 
signs and teachings. Evils that filled 
men's bodies with pain and their souls 
with fear were never thought to come 
without cause. Yet desirous as men have 
been to win the powers above them to 
their interest at any cost, they cer- 
tainly have been apt to interpret things 
according to their own selfish wishes, — 
not ready of heart to believe in God's 
impartial goodness, or to be led by the 
men who were most clearly enlightened 
and strongly moved to act for Him. 
What have people been doing, that so 
many things have seemed to be against 
them ? Why have they been afraid, 
in the hearing of voices full of wisdom 
and kindness ? How bring them to a 



OUR DOINGS — HOW KNOWN. 37 

right understanding in all things, and 
thus incline them to a generous confi- 
dence in the Father and a cheerful obe- 
dience to His will ? The Bible is full 
of exemplary answers to such ques- 
tions. It tells us what we have been 
doing in telling what God has been do- 
ing for us. 

God touches us through nature and 
through His servants. It has been His 
way to take chosen men into some share 
of His counsels ; and thus He has en- 
abled them to publish His laws, to fore- 
shadow His judgments, to write histo- 
ries for a memorial of His goodness, 
and to celebrate His dealings in pious 
psalms. But all the Scriptures are what 
they are, because man, is what he is. 
The dealings of God are set down as 
with immature beings always — and not 
seldom as with children that are per- 
verse or rebellious. All good men of 
the Bible are worse treated in the world 
than they would have been had their 



38 OUR DOINGS HOW KNOWN. 

fellowmen been better ; while Jesus 
Christ, the greatest and best, was treat- 
ed as of all men on earth the worst. 
All the way along we see the chosen 
servants of God trying to win men over 
to His truth and their duty, while men, 
on the contrary, show themselves as 
more or less obstinately pre-occupied, 
wayward, disobedient. Even the good 
are not always faithful to their charge. 
The best are trying to do better. Only 
our Lord Jesus fulfilled all righteous- 
ness, and really perfected the work that 
was given Him to do. 

Jesus is the First-begotten of the 
Father, the Elect in whom His soul de- 
lighteth, the beloved Son in whom He 
is well pleased, — whom we are to hear 
and to obey. Jesus Christ is the Medi- 
ator — doing for man on behalf of God, 
and doing for God on behalf of man, all 
that the perfect law of love requires. 
He the Son of God shows us of the 
Father, as the creation shows us of the 



OUR DOINGS — HOW KNOWN. 39 

Creator; and, the Son of man He is infi- 
nitely human, — human as Moses and 
the prophets were not in so far as they 
were not divine as is He. All previous 
teaching comes to its full meaning in 
His work. He shows just what it is for 
a man to be a child of God. 

The wonderful effort of our Lord, con- 
summated on earth in His crucifixion 
only to be carried on at the right hand 
of the Father in Heaven, — all this mys- 
terious effort, I say, witnessed and re- 
corded by His disciples, is left as His 
Testament to mankind in all the world 
and to all time : — to the intent that all 
men, the worst as well as the best, taught 
by the spirit of truth to know Him more 
and more, might trust and follow Him 
one by one as their Lord and Saviour. 
Thus the very secrets of the hearts are 
made manifest. Who is good now ? 
Whoever is in active moral sympathy 
with our Lord Jesus. And is anybody 
already condemned ? Only he whose 



40 OUR DOINGS — HOW KNOWN. 

heart is alienated from the Son of God's 
love, and whose conduct is consequent- 
ly opposed to His heavenly teaching. 

Now it is plain enough where we are. 
Immature and earthly like others, we 
exist under the strong light of the Chris- 
tian truth. If our first parents could 
not be saved from falling into sin but by 
obeying the word of God, no more can 
we be saved from falling into sin but by 
hearing the word of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. Not to do right is to do wrong. 
Tell me when and where it has been 
known that people have done right, ex- 
cept in obeying, as best they might, the 
voice of God. Was it before the flood, 
under Moses, the judges, the kings, the 
prophets ? Was it a good account the 
Roman and Jewish world gave of itself in 
putting to death the Prince of life, or in 
persecuting His followers ? In what were 
the eleven disciples, and the Marys, Nic- 
odemus, and Joseph of Arimathea, with 
hundreds of the faithful whose names 



OUR DOINGS — HOW KNOWN. 41 

we know not, better than those who de- 
nied the Lord before Pontius Pilate, 
when he was determined to let Him go ? 
Yet the faithful were not perfect. 

Adam and Eve, leaving undone the 
thing they ought to have done, — that is, 
not putting their confidence in the word 
of God, — proceeded to do the thing they 
ought not to have done, in the way of 
formal disobedience. Have we not all 
labored under the same difificulty : — too 
much confidence in ourselves, too little 
faith in God ? We have been children 
of flesh and blood, of sense and appetite, 
of passion and prejudice, of curiosity 
and self-will ; and this is why we have 
been so prone to hold cheap and barter 
away our birthright as children of spirit 
and truth, of faith and conscience, of 
patience and obedience, — that is, as 
children of God. 

Instead of being born to new good by 
every word of God, it has been too much 
our way to go on behaving just like the 



42 OUR DOINGS HOW KNOWN. 

ignorant and sensual creatures we might 
have been if no new light had been 
given us. We have conducted ourselves 
in such a manner as to give our Heav- 
enly Father endless trouble with us. 
We have made Him to serve with our 
sins, and wearied Him with our misdo- 
ings. We have compelled Him to visit 
us with His just and merciful correc- 
tions, little thinking that in all our afflic- 
tions He is afflicted ; and when our suf- 
ferings had moved His pity, and He gave 
us help from His holy place, we soon 
forgot that the angel of His presence 
saved us. Unfaithful to the commands 
that are least, how must we have con-- 
ducted ourselves toward the truth that 
is greatest ? Have we not been wanton 
and selfish in enjoying the things we 
coveted, — servile and cowardly in trying 
to beg or buy off the chastisements we 
feared ? 

Men have moved on together in fam- 
ilies, tribes, and nations, taking more 



OUR DOINGS — HOW KNOWN. 43 

pleasure in the familiar flock than in the 
noble leader ; so that it has been hard 
to discipline them in masses, as well as 
hard to raise individuals to singular vir- 
tue. The individual can always see his 
character mirrored more or less dis- 
tinctly in the fashion of his time. Our 
doings make the history and experience 
that are our schoolmasters ; while our 
schoolmasters sternly push us on to new 
and better doings. Our great trouble 
is that we side with the evil of the past ; 
and this we do whenever we do not 
come to the Light for reproof and guid- 
ance. 

Each of us must ask, what part have 
I taken in this human progress, wherein 
the Word of God is ever more a word of 
reproof and correction as well as of in- 
struction in righteousness ? In what 
actions have I been reproved ? What 
have I done ? No time for excuses 
now — no need of pleading our own 
cause ; the need is of honestly learning 



44 OUR DOINGS — HOW KNOWN. 

what we ought to do in distinction from 
what we have been doing. Our Teacher 
is also our Advocate. What care or 
love for ourselves have we to compare 
with His self-sacrifice on our account } 
What excuse of ours could avail like 
*^ Father, forgive them, for they know 
not what they do.^" But to know Je- 
sus is to learn about our doings. Inno- 
cent or guilty, our sufficiency is of God 
— not in ourselves. Guilty or innocent, 
our future character cannot depend 
wholly upon the brief past of our exis- 
tence. There is something for us to do 
— things being as they are. 

I will hear what God the Lord will 
speak : for He will speak peace unto His 
people and to His saints ; but let them 
not turn again to folly. 



IV. 

WHAT SHALL THEREFORE THE LORD OF THE 
VINEYARD DO ? — Mark xiv, 9. 

IF what we do is of great interest as 
being the reason in part of that which 
God is doing to us, then what God does 
to us is of the utmost importance, not 
only as showing His judgment of us, 
but as enabling us also to have some 
knowledge of Him. 

We may well ask : '' Shall not the 
Judge of all the earth do right ? " But 
what at any particular crisis it is right 
for the Judge of all the earth to do — only 
He can tell. Our rash thoughts and 
childish opinions are corrected by His 
practical teaching ; and, in the course of 
His dealings with us we learn more and 



46 god's dealings judge ours. 

more of His intention and of His char- 
acter. 

It is needful also that God should 
open to us a great range of vision. 
And, as we are very short-sighted^ this 
must take a very long time. How God 
gives us our daily lessons we may learn 
day by day; but how He judges the 
progress of the learners after long years 
of discipline, only long years can teach. 
The sense of discomfort that comes af- 
ter too heavy a meal is a significant 
lesson ; but it is not by itself so fear- 
fully instructive as is that judgment, 
which comes after many such lessons 
have passed unheeded, and which con- 
signs the victim of vile disease to a dis- 
honorable grave. 

But how much larger is the range of 
vision given us in the history of na- 
tions. It is in history that God's right- 
eousness is like the great mountains, 
and His judgments are a great deep. 
The infinite Father takes care of na- 



god's dealings judge ours. 47 

tions, as He takes care of the individ- 
uals and families that compose them. 
They have their boundaries appointed 
by Him. All nations owe Him tribute. 
To all He raises up teachers of their 
own — able to lead on to something bet- 
ter than is generally known and done. 
All are concerned in His great purpose 
of bringing the First-begotten Son into 
the world. But of one nation as con- 
cerning the flesh the Christ must come ; 
and this nation we see taken into train- 
ing in a peculiar way. Theirs is a choice 
vineyard, and of them special tribute is 
required. They are led through won- 
derful trials, and are taught the judg- 
ments of the Lord in a history full of 
marked favors and full of pointed re- 
bukes. To them the prophets come 
early and late to tell them of their high 
duty and their great hope. In the ful- 
ness of time the Child of promise ap- 
pears, — their Prince and the Saviour of 
the world. If they, the husbandmen of 



48 god's dealings judge ours. 

the choice vineyard, have abused God's 
servants, will they not at least reverence 
His Son ? And if they conspire to kill 
the Heir, — what then ? Refusing to 
receive Him who came to what was pe- 
culiarly His own, will they not be more 
blameworthy than the outer world that 
knew Him not ? 

It is a judgment of the world — when 
ruling men set themselves to judge 
our Lord ! Is He not the King ? 
Shall the race bring forth another ? No ! 
The vocation of bringing the promised 
Prince into the world was consummated 
when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. 
But the spiritual calling ! Will the 
Jews see that ? Will they come un- 
der the guidance and protection of 
their Prince ? Will they be born to 
new life through the living Word, and 
advance in the van of the new host of 
the Lord to the heritage of the whole 
earth ? Or, will they prefer to fill up 
the measure of their unbelieving fa- 



god's dealings judge ours. 49 

thers ; furnishing only a small contingent 
to the army of disciples, while as a peo- 
ple they become enemies and fall vic- 
tims to the new faith ? With what 
judgment they judge shall they not be 
judged ? 

What a critical trial it was ! What a 
summing up of their case for the Jews 
as a nation ! It was too much for the 
calmness even of Jesus, when, approach- 
ing Jerusalem, he beheld the city and 
wept over it ; and St. Paul was well- 
nigh beside himself for his brethren, his 
kinsmen according to the flesh : — their 
house left unto them desolate, their city 
soon to be destroyed, and the people 
dispersed to a long and painful wan- 
dering. 

But pending the disclosure of this 
great judgment upon the unbelieving 
people, what did the Lord of the vine- 
yard do in the way of mercy ? Were 
the husbandmen judged and cast out of 
the vineyard indiscriminately — with no 
4 



50 god's dealings judge ours. 

regard to individual characters ? By no 
means ! Who were Peter and Paul and 
the other apostles ? Where was the 
proclamation of the gospel of repent- 
ance and forgiveness to begin, but in 
the doomed city where it was so much 
needed ? What, indeed, was our Lord's 
laying down His life but practical am- 
nesty — the very extreme of forbearance, 
the infinite forgiveness, setting no limits 
to the penitent's hope ? The Saviour 
would not leave His betrayers and mur- 
derers to the consequences of their 
blindness, without appealing to them 
with the testimony of His resurrection 
and through the Spirit of Truth coming 
to the world in His name. The Jews 
stood before the risen Saviour with the 
whole Gentile world. Old differences 
were of no account. All needed mercy ; 
and there was mercy for all The Jews 
were just as welcome to believe in Him 
whom they had denied as were the gen- 
tiles to believe in Him whom they had 



god's dealings judge ours. 61 

not known. To all the word was, 
" Come, take up the Cross, and follow 
Me." Come, priests and scribes. Come, 
Pharisees and Sadducees. Come, all 
Jews with all Gentiles. The invitation 
was unlimited. Why should not the 
Jews come first ? Theirs were the faith- 
ful fathers, theirs the prophets ; to them 
were committed the oracles of God ; of 
them Christ came. Why tarry in the 
desolate house, in the outer darkness, 
when so many were coming from the 
East and from the West, to sit down 
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in 
the kingdom of God ? Is there not 
power in the Saviour's resurrection to 
make men welcome the fellowship of 
His sufferings ? Are there not powers 
of the world to come strong enough to 
call men from the wreck of the world 
that is passing away ? Since men mast 
die, and they of Jerusalem must die ter- 
ribly in the destruction of their city, 
what glory or blessedness for them like 



52 god's dealings judge ours. 

being alive unto God in their spirits 
through the Spirit of the Father dwell- 
ing in them ? 

Such was the Christian calling ad- 
dressed to all men, suited to all men, 
necessary for all men : — no other way 
of escape from old errors, no other way 
of entrance into the saving grace and 
holy discipline and ultimate peace of 
God's eternal kingdom. Did not the 
Judge do right ? 

But what a change, when the Lord of 
the vineyard superseded the old dispen- 
sation with the new! How little can 
we know or conceive the wonder it was, 
taking place to human view in open day 
and in common history, yet coming in 
the clouds of heaven with power and 
great glory! For more than eighteen 
hundred years the Lord of the vineyard 
has been doing the things that were to 
be done as the proper sequel of His 
cross and passion, His resurrection and 
ascension, and the coming of the Holy 



I 



god's dealings judge ours. ' 53 

Ghost. The story of it is the triumphai 
psalm of our Lord's mediatorial reign. 
It is the opening of the kingdom of 
heaven to all believers; and it is the 
assurance of the Saviour's coming to be 
the Judge. The Judge will take ac- 
count of what we individually shall have 
been doing under the dispensation of 
grace. For the love and patience of 
our Lord are always pressing us to hear 
His voice to-day — after so long a time — 
and not to harden our hearts. 

Think of the simple majesty of this 
triumphal psalm, and consider what our 
Lord is doing. Why did the heathen 
rage and the people imagine a vain 
thing ? The King is enthroned. The 
heathen are His inheritance. He rules 
and judges the nations — rules them, if 
need be, with a rod of iron, or dashes 
them in pieces like a potter's vessel ; that 
men may hear His voice, pay homage to 
His authority, accept His mercy, and 
enter one and all into His joy. His 



54 * god's dealings judge ours. 

proclamation of forgiveness and favor is 
all abroad. He is higher than the kings 
of the earth, — ruling in a plenitude of 
sweet and glorious characters. He is 
Brother, Friend, Advocate — yea, our 
better self ; for we are incomplete and 
not properly ourselves apart from Him. 
He came to announce — and is He not 
still proclaiming the acceptable year of 
the Lord ? 
Behold, now is the day of salvation. 



V. 

What shall we do then l—Luke Hi, lo. 

IT is ours to do at any moment ac- 
cording to our knowledge of what 
God has done and is doing for us. 

Would it be right for the awakening 
and expanding soul to turn freely to the 
light of God's truth and live by every 
word of His mouth ? Then it would be 
right also for the erring or disobedient, 
finding the voice of God still near and 
urgent, to turn to the holy command- 
ment for reproof and guidance. Right, 
then, and thrice blessed must it be for 
all to hear and obey the Lord Jesus,since 
our perfection is revealed in Him. He 
is our one example of heavenly conduct ; 
and His example is good for the whole 



56 THE GREAT QUESTION RECURRING. 

range of human activity from the cradle 
onward. 

Our range of activity is immense. 
We are not born to our households 
merely, — but to our country, world uni- 
verse, — to all ages, all truth, all being ; 
because we are children of God^ meant 
to be joint heirs with Jesus Christ to a 
heritage of endless duty and endless joy. 

But our duty as well as our joy must 
reveal itself within us according to the 
measure of our growing capacity. We 
cannot be hurried headlong into our 
possessions and dignities. A man must 
be trained well and a good while, if he 
is to be fit for the intimate counsels of 
his president or prince ; how much 
more then, if the King of heaven and 
earth is to take him into confidence and 
give him honorable service. Hence it 
is that our Father, who is' the great 
King, is careful of our very earliest 
training. When we come to the place 
where two ways meet, — ^one the way of 



THE GREAT QUESTION RECURRING. 57 

forbidden self-indulgence, the other the 
way of serious wisdom and just authori- 
ty, — He takes care that these ways shall 
be known, one as conducting invariably 
to an experience of evil, the other as 
leading no less certainly to the enjoy- 
ment of comparative good ; and, that 
the two ways shall be marked, one with 
the sign ''thou shalt not", the other 
with the sign '' thou shalt". 

If then our heavenly Father is so 
careful to secure our discipline as to 
**the two ways''; if He will have us 
submit to the laws of nature and to the 
commandments of men for His sake, 
while as yet we are under tutors and 
governors — mere novices in life and not 
differing practically from servants ; how 
much more must He provide for the ma- 
turing of our characters as full-grown 
children. How simply necessary it ap- 
pears to the carrying out of the Father's 
good purpose, — that the first -begotten 
Son should visit his younger brethren 



58 THE GREAT QUESTION RECURRING. 

in person ; that He should justify the 
confidence of all who had honored Him 
in anticipation of His advent, and win 
the trust of all, — even of those, if possi- 
ble, who might be for a time most bru- 
tally alien and unbelieving. And, if it 
is good conduct for us to yield a confid- 
ing obedience to our tutors and govern- 
ors, while as yet we are not able to know 
our great Teacher and our heavenly 
Father, much more must it be good 
conduct for us to put our whole trust 
and confidence in our Lord Jesus, when 
we learn how He has visited us in great 
humility. What good father would not 
look to have his children born again to 
him as heirs of his thoughts, feelings, 
purposes and efforts ? What reasonable 
child could be content to remain for- 
ever a mere servant or apprentice, 
dwarfed in all powers, and disappointed 
as to all advancement, heir only of 
<'thou shalt not", and "thou shalt " ? 
And, will the Heavenly Father allow 



THE GREAT QUESTION RECURRING. 59 

eternal minority to be the life of his 
children ? Or, shall his children post- 
pone their great inheritance out of fond- 
ness for first lessons and the rudiments 
of this world ? Nay ! What we are to 
do is to go on from faith to faith, as we 
are called ever forward by the revela- 
tions of truth and love. 

We find, therefore, that there is one 
thing, which is always the same thing in 
kind, and which we are always to do, 
according to the light that is given us, 
both because the thing is right in itself, 
and because it leads to right doing in 
all possible particulars of action : we are 
to believe in the wisest and best Coun- 
sellor. 

"This is the work of God," said Je- 
sus, *' that ye believe on Him whom 
He hath sent." '' And this is life eter- 
nal," said the great Teacher on another 
occasion, *' that they might know Thee 
the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
whom Thou hast sent/' 



60 THE GREAT QUESTION RECURRING. 

Now, if we believe in the Teacher, we 
shall set ourselves to learn of Him ; and 
certainly to learn of Him is the way to 
increase our faith in the Teacher. So, 
believing that we may learn, and learn- 
ing that we may believe, both our ac- 
quaintance with our Lord and our new 
faith in Him are all the time working 
together to give us a growing sense of 
living with Him. Doing all things un- 
der His direction, all our powers are in- 
formed and animated by His guidance. 
We ourselves are changed into His im- 
age. All our doings become pleasing 
to Him in so far as our purpose is to 
please Him ; while, so far as our efforts 
are still awkward and imperfect, our 
good will and obedient exertion are the 
practical assurance that He will enable 
us to go from strength to strength. 
For He is always with us for our correc- 
tion and encouragement. 

It is He who has charged Himself 
with our training in the past. It is His 



THE GREAT QUESTION RECURRING. 61 

Spirit who is in all the world, leading 
sincere souls to the true knowledge of 
God and of themselves, stirring up the 
faithful to works of love such as were 
done by Him in person for an example 
to His followers. It is He, in short, 
who has been ruling over us and reign- 
ing in us — little as we have been able 
to appreciate His doings. And now, so 
far as our understanding can go, do we 
not find everything to encourage, as well 
as to require, our faith in Him ? 

Where shall we begin to find fault 
with God's ways ? Shall we complain 
of the things that are made and the 
course of nature ? Shall we criticise 
the history of our race, and talk of man- 
kind as a turbulent and misgoverned 
family, — throwing the blame upon Him, 
who has always been most practically 
pointing out the right and correcting 
the wrong ? Shall we denounce the 
conditions under which we as individ- 
uals have lived, or bewail the mistakes 



62 THE GREAT QUESTION RECURRING. 

and deficiencies of our education, and so 
turn away from the voice of Him, who 
was willing to bear us and all our bur- 
dens — for the joy of sharing with us all 
the treasures of His truth and love? 
God forbid ! 

On the contrary, shall we not trust in 
our Saviour, and be loyal to our King ? 
What hope is ours, when we feel Him 
drawing us with cords of a man, with 
bands of love ! We find love in the 
kingdom of nature, teaching us to win 
life by obeying law ; love in the civil 
governments of the world, wherein our 
relative rights are sought to be secured 
by the restraint and punishment of evil- 
doers ; love in the common social life, 
in which the nobler example and the 
better influence are constantly helpful 
to all but those who refuse the better 
part. Just as we grow up to know that 
we are citizens of a country, which we 
are to serve and honor, with whose best 
citizens and highest officers we shall 



THE GREAT QUESTION RECURRING. 63 

come into personal intimacy in propor- 
tion as our service is of public import- 
ance ; so are we to advance in our ap- 
prehension of the kingdom of God. We 
are to know that the heavenly king- 
dom is all embracing ; that it is first 
and best, that all good hopes and treas- 
ures are in it, and that no power can 
prevail against it ; that it offers us hon- 
orable service, suited to every order of 
ability, and invites us, lowly as we are, 
to personal friendship and even intima- 
cy with the King. 

In learning that God's kingdom is for 
us as really as we are for it, and that 
God is ever doing for us in order that 
we may be doing ever more and better 
for Him, we cannot help coming to a 
personal intercourse and understanding 
with our Lord. It was to this that St. 
Francis of Assisi attained after over- 
coming many temptations. The story 
is told thus : 

" Beating his breast, he sought after 



64 THE GREAT QUESTION RECURRING. 

Jesus, the Beloved of his soul, and hav- 
ing found Him at last in the secret of 
his heart, now he spoke reverently to 
Him as his Lord, now he made answer 
to Him as his Judge, now he besought 
Him as his Father, now he conversed 
with Him as his Friend." 

Blessed society and conversation of 
the heavenly kingdom ! The King 
/:ommunes with each as well as with all ; 
and the meekness and gentleness of 
Christ toward the feeblest of His flock 
b)ecomes the law of kindness ever dwell- 
ing on the lips of all His servants in 
their converse with one another. Be- 
fore we have learned that we ought to 
seek first the kingdom of God, the king- 
dom of God has imparted to us an ele- 
mentary instruction and training ; while 
our love is lying dormant in the possi- 
bilities of an unschooled heart, the king- 
dom is causing us to do many services, 
and to overcome many temptations; till 
at length it appears that all was meant 



THE GREAT QUESTION RECURRING. 65 

to gain us a more effectual introduction 
to our Prince and Saviour. He refresh- 
es our weariness, pardons our faults, 
encourages our diligence, lifts us above 
the level of servants to the communion 
of love, saying: " Ye are my friends^ if 
ye do whatsoever I command you!' 



VI. 

What shall we then say to these things? 
If God be for us, who can be against us? 
Rom, via. 31. 

LET us in a few words go over 
again the thoughts we have had 
in our minds : 

First, we thought the great question 
for us to be the question of duty, — what 
our Father would have us to do ; and 
this meant that we could have no con- 
cern with our welfare as distinguished 
from our duty, since the very beginning 
of duty is in simple trust — that takes 
the Father s will as the best and only 
assurance of our welfare. 

Secondly, it was seen that what we 
ought to do is made known in the things 
done for us ; in other words, that the 



REVIEW. 67 

creation of God is addressed to us, and 
that as soon as we are born we are set 
to work with things which are set to 
work with us. We found that God is 
for us in sun, wind, rain and soil ; and 
that He is for us in the special care and 
instruction of our natural guardians and 
teachers. 

Thirdly, we made some inquiry as to 
our doings. It was natural to ask 
whether we as a race of God's creatures 
or as individuals, had been as dutiful 
toward our Creator as He had been 
beneficent to us. We found our history 
to be clearly marked, and that the facts 
were favorable to us chiefly as affording 
testimony of God's persistent training 
of us to duty, — of His checking, reprov- 
ing, correcting and instructing us in the 
time of our ignorance and self-will. The 
difficulty of bringing us up to do right 
appeared in constant appeals to our 
second thought and better judgment 
through chosen messengers ; while our 



68 ALL TEACHING ASKS FAITH. 

intractableness was but too apparent in 
the treatment to which prophets and 
righteous men were often subjected, un- 
til the world uttered the saddest judg- 
ment upon itself, in the crucifixion of 
the Son of God. 

Fourthly, came a question that im- 
plied a conceivable limit to our Father's 
patience, a possible change in our Lord's 
treatment of us : — such patient and prac- 
tical love on God's part, to be met with 
such unbelief and violence on man's 
part ! What shall the Lord do, there- 
fore ? Is it for Him to fail or to be dis- 
couraged ? Or, shall not rather the 
world's unworthiness of the Prince af- 
ford only the more convincing proof of 
how worthy the Prince is to be the Sav- 
iour of the world ? Verily He is able 
to save unto the uttermost ; and, lest 
any temporary ignorance or unschooled 
passion should defeat His merciful de- 
sign, the Saviour, in the glory of His 
resurrection, and by the Spirit of truth, 



REVIEW. 69 

appeals to the juster and tenderer 
thoughts of His human brethren. Not 
one who will receive the testimony of 
the Lord shall be held under the con- 
demnation of an unbelieving world. 

Fifthly, the great question came home 
to us again with accumulated meaning : 
What shall we do then ? The history 
of the world is made to repeat itself in 
the life of every individual. Starting 
without knowledge and without faith, 
each one of us is set to going over the 
whole Bible record of human experience 
of which each life is a part, so that we 
may learn what sort of world and what 
sort of history we have to do with. Thus 
the kingdom of God, having encom- 
passed our path, even in our ignorance, 
is found to be within us through knowl- 
edge and faith, — pervading all our pow- 
ers, and with our co-operation bringing 
us into harmony with all the divine 
mind and will. 

Every inquiry into which the great 



70 ALL TEACHING ASKS FAITH. 

question led us, was found to be on the 
way to just one great answer : — Have 
faith in God ; put your whole trust and 
confidence in His mercy declared unto 
mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. As 
easily could you create yourself out of 
nothing at first, as you could create 
yourself anew to the fullness of natural 
and spiritual manhood without God, and 
without the Christ who is our Lord. 

Of the faith which our Lord found 
when He was upon earth, of how He 
organized that faith in the Christian 
church, and of what it was given the 
church to do, we shall have something 
to say hereafter. 

Meanwhile, would that I could convey 
to my reader, by some happy hint, the 
true idea of faith ; that I could make 
him know how natural and how blessed 
faith is. Are not all things of God ? 
Is not that then a most beautiful dispo- 
sition and action of a man wherein he 
receives all things as of God, and out of 



REVIEW. 71 

all things gets God's word and sugges- 
tion for the guidance of all his own 
actions ? 

Are not all things of God through 
Jesus Christ; the living Word, whose 
Spirit dwells within us, as counsel and 
inspiration ? To bow with reverence 
and obedience before the revelation of 
God in His Son, to yield ourselves as 
living temples for the indwelling of His 
Spirit,— what is this but to be led from 
utter ignorance into all truth, to grow 
up as children of God — joint heirs with 
Jesus Christ in the unity of the same 
Spirit ? This is to live by faith. 

All things call us and all things train 
us to faith. How are you so sure that 
the sun will continue to rise after his 
going down, and the seasons to return 
in due order ? How are you so sure 
that, even in a human society imma- 
ture and liable to error as is society in this 
world; righteousness shall in the long 
run be honored and injustice condemn- 



72 ALL TEACHING ASKS FAITH. 

ed ? The assurance in either case is by 
faith. God has succeeded in building 
up a certain persuasion in our being, by 
simply abiding faithful Himself in the 
practical support of that persuasion. 

How can we gain assurance that Je- 
sus is the Christ, the Son of God, — our 
proper Master and Lord ? We gain 
this assurance by faith ; by accepting 
first a perfectly trustworthy testimony, 
and then finding that our Lord abides 
practically and unchangeably faithful to 
the testimony, — showing us the best 
things, leading us in the best life. Or, 
if we refuse to believe, God abideth 
faithful. He cannot deny Himself or 
deceive us. He will undeceive us at 
last, however long we may deceive our- 
selves. 

Why is it, that, having known and 
listened to our Lord; we begin to have 
better thoughts of God, — that we no 
longer accuse Him in our hearts as a 
hard Master, but revere Him as the all- 



REVIEW. 73 

wise, the most gracious Father ? Evi- 
dently the change comes by our faith in 
Jesus, when He points out the true 
meaning and intention of the Father s 
deaUngs with us. With our Lord we 
are taken into the method of sacrifice, 
through which the glories and joys of 
the eternal life are wrought out. Sud- 
denly dark things are lighted up. Mo- 
mentary afflictions are not to be weigh- 
ed against the exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory. It behooved the Christ 
to suffer, and to enter into His glory. 
It is good for the servant to suffer, and 
be glorified with his Lord. Are we 
reconciled to God by the death of His 
Son ? Much more then, being recon- 
ciled, shall we be saved — that is^ led on 
in the way of our perfection and wel- 
fare — by Him, who, having once died 
for us, is now alive forever more ? 

What can be right for us, if faith be 
not right ? We cannot live without 
faith. We are obliged to have confi- 



74 ALL TEACHING ASKS FAITH. 

dence in the course of nature, which is 
confidence after a Wind sort in the God 
of nature. We are under the necessity 
of having faith in ordinary men as being 
in some sense God's servants. What 
commanding reason, what unmistakable 
lightness in that faith which embraces 
in our Lord Jesus Christ both the rev- 
elation of God and the consummation of 
man ! 

Finally, though there be those in the 
world who have no name for Him who 
is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, 
stiU must they live by faith, listening to 
the voice within that tells them of the 
better things ; and so, ever doing the 
higher will uttered in the law of their 
spirits, they must await the appearing 
of their Lord, both theirs and ours. For, 
little as they may be able to suspect it, 
He is the true Light, which lighteth eve- 
ry man that cometh into the world. 



VII. 

Nevertheless when the son of man cometh, 

SHALL HE find FAITH ON THE EARTH? Luke 

xviiu 8. 

WHO is this Son ot man ? 
The Son of man is He to 
whom all the prophets give witness, in 
order that all men may give Him faith. 

As the Revelation of God He is en- 
titled to faith ; and He seeks faith that 
He may be the Saviour of men. He 
had to come once as a candidate for 
their confidence, that men might know 
and follow Him as their rightful Lord. 

It is for every one of us to follow the 
Saviour by faith ; and so it is fitting 
that we salute Him at His coming. Let 
us try to enter into sympathy with His 
experience on earth : 



76 THE FAITH IN CHRIST. 

First, as to His need of finding faith: 

Secondly, as to the kind of faith He 
needed to find : 

Thirdly, as to His way of seeking 
faith by making Himself known to dis- 
ciples. 

Could so wonderful a being as our 
Lord Jesus feel the need of anything ? 
He is wonderful in the very need which 
it was for Him to feel. If a man comes 
with a high claim and a great calling, 
and other men do not believe in him, 
they have no alternative but to look up- 
on him as a great criminal. Not to find 
faith is to find condemnation and pun- 
ishment. 

All princes have to guard themselves 
against the unbelief of their people. 
They are lifted up by law, enriched with 
revenues, counselled by learning, forti- 
fied by civil authorities and military for- 
ces. In this way they have been able 
often to wield power even after they 
have forfeited faith. But this is not the 



THE FAITH IN CHRIST. 77 

way of the divine Prince. He cannot 
sway the souls of men as He desires to 
sway them without their free consent to 
His ruling. Faith, therefore, He seeks 
as the condition of all His success. He 
would rather die for want of outward 
defences, if so He might win faith, than 
live surrounded by all outward signs of 
devotion, yet without being frecsly ac- 
cepted as the Sovereign of men's hearts. 
Think, too, what kind of faith the Son 
of man needed. Ordinary faith would 
not do. Faith that might make the for- 
tune of a Simon Magus, — of what ac- 
count would it be with Jesus ? The 
Saviour cannot do His work with a 
blindly credulous and selfish following. 
Faith of the poor widow's type, who un- 
dertook to worry the judge into attend- 
ing to her case, though he feared not 
God nor regarded man, was good enough 
for such a judge; but a better faith 
must be given to Him, who is not un- 
just, and who is perfect Love. The man 



78 THE FAITH IN CHRIST. 

who would rise at midnight and give his 
friend three loaves simply because he 
could not bear to be importuned, would 
no doubt find exactly such faith as his 
conduct would deserve. But Jesus 
wanted faith, whose ceaseless importun- 
ity would take form in His own prayer 
to the Father in Heaven, — faith that 
would find delight with Him in doing 
the Father's will on earth. 

The best believers in the world were 
called to new faith when the Lord came. 
Only a little while before Simeon might 
have said with Israel of old, — '' I have 
waited for Thy salvation, O Lord ; " but 
when the infant Saviour was in his arms 
the earlier faith was out of date, and he 
exclaimed, — '' Lord, now lettest Thou 
Thy servant depart in peace, according 
to Thy word ; for mine eyes have seen 
Thy salvation." The voice of prophetic 
anticipation that John the Baptist lifted 
up in the desert was changed to the 
voice of loyal recognition at the baptism 



THE FAITH IN CHRIST. 79 

of Jesus. And yet again from the pris- 
on John sent to Jesus — the voice not of 
a prophet but of an eager and anxious 
disciple. 

What then was our Lord's way of 
seeking the faith that should be suited 
to His character and aim ? 

There was not an instant's uncertain- 
ty. He had not come too early nor too 
late. The way of the Lord was prepar- 
ed. True, the world was set in order 
for His advent ; but He came to His 
own people. His own received Him 
not ; so He came to the disciples of 
John the Baptist. Many of John's dis- 
ciples were content to be John's disci- 
ples still ; therefore Jesus watched for 
those who were watching for Him. 
Faith sprang up to greet Him as natu- 
rally as the blade of wheat starts up to 
salute the sun. We have a lively ac- 
count of the faith He found as it ap- 
peared in its morning freshness. 

'' Behold the Lamb of God/' said John 



80 THE FAITH IN CHRIST. 

to two of his disciples, looking upon 
Jesus as He was walking. Any faith to 
greet the Saviour so early ? " The two 
disciples heard him speak, and they 
followed Jesus." Did Jesus see their 
faith ? " Jesus turned, and saw them 
following, and saith unto them, '' What 
seek ye ? " Did they have faith enough 
to ask for further acquaintance ? '' Mas- 
ter, where dwellest Thou ? " they said. 
How did Jesus greet their confidence ? 
'*Come, and see," said He. Did the hos- 
pitable invitation find acceptance ? Yes ; 
faith still moved them. They cam^e and 
saw, and abode with Him that day. 
And shall not their faith abide with Him 
forever ? At any rate there was a 
promptness in asking others to share 
their faith. Andrew finds his own 
brother Simon, and brings him to the 
Messiah. Jesus invites Philip to be of 
the number of His followers. Philip 
finds Nathaniel. The number of disci- 
ples is increased, while the conviction 



THE FAITH IN CHRIST. 81 

they have of their Lord's character grows 
with everything He does. Faith makes 
them disciples. Discipleship is to in- 
crease and try their faith. 

The trial and progress of faith is ever 
in our Lord's thoughts. Knowing what 
was before His disciples in the world, 
and that He must train some for high 
places and great service in His king- 
dom, He is at much pains to warn and 
teach in such a way that no one could 
enlist under His banner without count- 
ing the cost. 

It was a marked day in our Lord's 
ministry, when, after He had continued 
all night in prayer to God, He chose 
twelve from among His disciples, whom 
also He named apostles. These made 
up the immediate family and school of 
the great Teacher. His setting forth 
of their calling was the truth itself. 
There was not one flattering tint in the 
picture. Theirs indeed was the king- 
dom of heaven ; but the kingdom could 
6 



82 THE FAITH IN CHRIST. 

not come without offences and persecu- 
tions. When some fell away from fol- 
lowing Jesus and He turned to the trus- 
ty few with — '* will ye also go away ? " 
Simon Peter could answer, " Lord, to 
whom shall we go ? Thou hast the 
words of eternal life." But how much 
had Peter and the rest yet to learn be- 
fore they would be ready to lay down 
their lives for His sake. 

It was not easy to make the disciples 
understand what their Master had to 
teach. They knew not what He did. 
They were puzzled with things He said. 
He was often compelled to be dark and 
disappointing to them, that He might 
lay up within them by word and deed 
that treasure of divine revelation, which 
the Spirit of truth would afterward teach 
them to remember and proclaim. 

Yet how simple and practical was the 
great Teacher : not shutting Himself up 
to the few, but making the few His help- 
ers in teaching the many. By giving 



THE FAITH IN CHRIST. 83 

His disciples a part in His public minis- 
try He made His public ministry react 
with peculiar force upon the disciples. 
Did He find parables best suited to the 
people in general ? '' It is given unto 
you," he said to the more eager inquir- 
ers, '' to know the mysteries of the king- 
dom of heaven." Seeing the multitudes 
He went up into a mountain ; and of 
course it was the disciples who gathered 
around Him after He was seated, that 
they might listen for the whole world to 
the sermon on the mount. So, through 
all the teaching and preaching in the 
synagogues, the disputings in the tem- 
ple, the talks in houses and by the way, 
it was the disciples especially who were 
to hear and understand. 

The miracles, — were they not wonders 
of practical teaching no less than won- 
ders of power and goodness ? The pow- 
er and goodness availed for others ; the 
teaching was particularly for the disci- 
ples. Others enjoyed the wine at the 



84 THE FAITH IN CHRIST. 

wedding feast of Cana ; but the Lord's 
disciples believed on Him. The thou- 
sands were satisfied with the loaves and 
fishes ; the twelve had their spirits 
stirred with the lesson of their Lord's 
bounty. Other men having seen the 
miracle would take Jesus by force to 
make Him a king ; the disciples allow- 
ed Him freely to teach them what a 
King He was. Mark the quick interest 
of the disciples, when their Master's 
help is sought. If after trying the peti- 
tioner's faith He broke forth into grate- 
ful applause, as if the faith He found 
was more precious to Him than the 
sense of His own power, who w^ould 
pray, '' Lord, increase our faith," if not 
the disciples ? Would the miraculous 
draught of fishes or the stilling of the 
tempest ever cease to rally the faith of 
the fishers of men ? " I am glad for 
your sakes that I was not there/' said 
Jesus, referring to the death of Lazarus, 
'' to the intent ye may believe." And, 



THE FAITH IN CHRIST. 85 

for whose sake came the voice, when 
some said that it thundered, others that 
an angel spake mito Him ? 

It is wonderful how the Lord turns 
everything to the best account for His 
disciples. No such divine watchfulness 
was ever known on earth before. We 
see Him keeping and saving those who 
had put themselves under His direction. 
He guards them against being unduly 
uplifted or unduly cast down ; and if 
His considerate goodness cannot always 
hold them back from rash ventures, He 
is ever ready to restore their souls after 
failures that were not to be prevented. 
'' Why could not we cast him out ? " 
they ask ; and again, '' Lord, wilt Thou 
that we command fire to come down 
from heaven and consume them, even as 
Elias did ? " In either instance the di- 
vine word is ready : — the Son of man is 
on earth not to destroy men's lives, '-^ut 
to save them ; and salvation is a work 
of sober self-discipline, nor of incon- 



86 THE FAITH IN CHRIST. 

siderate self-assertion. There is a kind 
that goeth not out but by prayer and 
fasting. 

All of the twelve but one the Lord 
kept unto the end ; yet even the faith- 
ful eleven could not follow Him in the 
final trial till after He had shown them 
the way. The last passover, the holy 
supper, the heavenly discourse, His 
prayer as High Priest — all required the 
cross and passion, the resurrection and 
ascension, and the coming of the Holy 
Ghost, in order to become real to the 
disciples. Jesus could not give Himself 
by word only. He must do and suffer 
to reveal Himself Not without exas- 
perating the world's unbelief could He 
win the faith of His followers. Not 
without the death which unbelief would 
inflict could Jesus reveal the immortal 
life He desired to impart. He must ful- 
fil His revelation, if He would perfect 
forever the believer's faith. He did fulfill 
His revelation. His body was given, and 



THE FAITH IN CHRIST. 87 

His blood was shed — for whom ? '' For 
you/' '' for you/' was His repeated say- 
ing to the disciples ; and so it was the 
more effectually for many, for all. Once 
having endured the cross, and showing 
Himself alive after His passion. He be- 
came the perfect example of victory 
through sacrifice — Leader in faith from 
the first springing of the blade to the 
full corn in the ear. 

Taught by His dying and His rising 
again, the disciples knew how they were 
to bear their testimony to His truth ; 
and the Comforter could comfort them 
under all tribulations. 

Verily the Son of man found faith, 
and by His divine teaching of His disci- 
ples He so filled out their faith that it 
became the faith. Having continued 
with Him in His temptations, seen His 
glory, kept His words, sufTered in His 
death, revived in His resurrection, the 
apostles were ready at length, through 
the power of the Holy Spirit, to fulfill 



88 THE FAITH IN CHRIST. 

the great commission with which their 
Lord at once honored their faith in Him 
and testified His confidence in them : — 
" Go ye therefore a7td teach all nations^ 
baptizing them in the name of the Father^ 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghosts 



VIII. 

Then they that gladly received his word 

WERE BAPTIZED. — Acts ii. 41. 

AS our Lord found faith on the earth 
by making Himself known to His 
disciples, so His disciples were to find 
faith by making their Master known to 
all nations and to every person. '' As the 
Father hath sent me, even so send I 
you/' was His word ; and then He 
breathed on them, and said unto them, 
** Receive ye the Holy Ghost. ^' 

The apostles were to do the work of 
Him that sent them in His way: — His 
word was their message. His ministry 
their example, His Spirit their helper, 
and their aim His glory and joy in the 
world's redemption. 



90 SYMBOL OF THE FAITH. 

To be disciples of our Lord Jesus is 
not a duty to be compared with other 
duties ; it is the duty that sums up all 
duties and secures their fulfilment. We 
are to do all things in the name of the 
Lord Jesus, and without Him nothing 
is well done that is done. Many as the 
things may be in detail which we have 
to do, they are all one — all included in 
following Christ, To serve Him is the 
privilege and glory of all service. To be 
His disciples is to learn why we were 
made, and is to be made anew unto 
good works. To believe in Him is to 
know that His Father is our Father, 
and so to be begotten and born again as 
children of God. The gift of Jesus 
Christ to be our Saviour is to save all 
Other gifts from losing their flavor. 
Therefore we say : '' Thanks be unto God 
for His unspeakable gift." To proclaim 
the truth as the truth is in Jesus is to 
preach glad tidings. The glad tidings 
are to be heard gladly, and those that 



HOLY BAPTISM. 91 

gladly receive the word are to do what 
the word prescribes : they are to be 
baptized. 

Here two questions meet us : 

What does Baptism stand for in 
Christian teaching ? 

What is the practical use of Baptism 
in the economy of Christian disciple- 
ship ? 

It is not the ritual of Baptism with 
which we are concerned now. Every 
disciple will receive the rite according 
to the usage of that body of Christians 
in which he becomes a member. It is 
the history of Baptism that tells us its 
meaning and use ; and happily for us 
this history is very simple and full of 
life. In it. Baptism has one radical sig- 
nificance, which no incidental variation 
can obscure. We may state it thus : 

Baptism stands for the outward ad- 
ministration of the divine v/ord as re- 
lated to the inward working of the 
Divine Spirit in faithful disciples. 



92 SYMBOL OF THE FAITH. 

See that majestic man in raiment of 
camel's hair, who has retired to the 
desert, and yet is sought after by multi- 
tudes from Jerusalem, from all parts of 
Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. 
The people invade his solitude, and 
throng about him as if the world had 
grown flat, stale and unprofitable ; and 
he is telling them of a better world to 
come. The very kingdom of heaven, he 
assures them, is at hand. But the king- 
dom of heaven is for heavenly people — 
the best world for souls that are suited 
to it. They must all get ready for it. 

Many were very much in earnest. 
They confessed their sins, and asked 
what they should do. John, speaking 
for the Law and the Prophets, told them 
what to do. He gave such directions 
for their conduct as would put them in 
practical training for the new life to 
come. He charged his disciples to do 
works suited to their new convictions; 
and especially he called upon them to 



HOLY BAPTISM. \j6 

give a sign and pledge of their disciple- 
ship. Is it good for you that my doc- 
trine should drop as the rain and distil 
as the dew ? Will you be drenched with 
the truth — bathed in the purifying ele- 
ment ? Then declare it here in the Jor- 
dan. Receive the baptism of water as 
a pledge that you will receive obediently 
that for which the baptism stands, name- 
Iv, the administration of God's word 
through which His Spirit influences the 
dispositions and reforms the conduct of 
the faithful. 

Of course this meaning of the bap- 
tismal rite proves itself true only by 
furnishing a full and consistent sense to 
those passages in the New Testament 
that refer to baptism. In other words, 
we must find that the word '' baptism " 
actually does stand for the meaning 
stated. For example, when it is said 
that many of the Pharisees and of the 
Sadducees came to John's baptism, it 
does not of necessity mean that they 



94 SYMBOL OF THE FAITH. 

received baptism as John's disciples; 
but rather that they came to that out- 
ward administration of God's word for 
which baptism stands ; they were curi- 
ous to hear John's preacliing and to 
watch the effect of his ministry. Hence 
the stern rebuke and exhortation he ad- 
dressed to them. When Jesus said : 
" The baptism of John, whence was it ? 
from heaven or of men ? " not the bare 
rite is referred to^ but that for which the 
rite stands — the administration of the 
divine word that ought to have made the 
Scribes and Pharisees beheve in John, 
and that did make the people count him 
for a prophet. When our Lord says to 
Nicodemus : ^' Except a man be born of 
water and of the spirit, he cannot enter 
into the kingdom of God,'' he does 
not mean that the formal rite of bap- 
tism by water alone is so indispensable. 
His meaning takes in both the rite and 
what the rite stands for. The outward 
administration of God's word through 



HOLY BAPTISM. 95 

which the spirit works is that without 
which we cannot be born into the spirit- 
ual family and kingdom of God. So in 
the first Epistle of St. Peter Christians 
are described as " born again, not of cor- 
ruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
the word of God which liveth and abid- 
eth forever." *' Of His own will begat 
He us by the word of truth," declares 
St. James; and St. Paul connects the 
rite of baptism with what the rite stands 
for, when he teaches the Ephesians that 
Christ "loved the church, and gave 
Himself for it, that He might sanctify 
and cleanse it with the washing of water 
by the word." Also, when St. Paul 
writes : " For Christ sent me not to bap- 
tize, but to preach the gospel;" what 
does it mean but simply that he was not 
sent to administer a mere form of bap- 
tism, but the word of truth for which the 
form standS; and by which baptism and 
all other rites get their proper meaning 
and use ? 



96 SYMBOL OF THE FAITH. 

Though we cannot now. refer to all 
places in the New Testament which 
would set baptism before us in its prop- 
er sense, there is one example of it 
which we must by no means fail to 
study. Jesus received baptism at the 
hands of John. Why ? Because it was 
right that He should own and honor in 
baptism the administration of God's 
word for which baptism stands. Had 
He not grown to manhood under the Law 
and the Prophets ? And He came not 
to deny, not to destroy the previous ad- 
ministration of divine truth, but to ac- 
knowledge and fulfil it. Could He be 
the whole revelation of God from ever- 
lasting and world without end, if His 
ministration of truth did not obediently 
recognize, as well as perfectly fill out 
the teaching already given ? But mark 
the variation ! Baptism stood to Jesus 
as to others for the administration of the 
divine word ; but the word that called 
others to repentance could only justify 



HOLY BAPTISM. 97 

Him, and the Spirit who reproved others 
bore witness to Him from the Father : 
" This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased." He, the obedient child of 
the Law, was greater than all ordinary 
conceptions of the Law. He was the 
man of prophecy, coming to be minis- 
tered unto only that He might minister 
and give His life a ransom for many. 
Baptism was lifted in His person to the 
perfect standard of divine truth. The 
act did not announce Jesus as one of a 
multitude of imperfect disciples. On 
the contrary, it gave the world assurance 
of all fulness in Christ — one body and 
one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one bap- 
tism, one God and Father of all — above 
all, and through all, and in all. More- 
over, our Lord's baptism, standing for 
the administration of divine truth, spir- 
itually received and perfectly obeyed by 
Him, would stand also in His mind for 
all the suffering that perfect loyalty to 
the truth would bring. Hence we are able 

7 



98 SYMBOL OF THE FAITH. 

to catch a glimpse of His great meaning, 
when Fie said : " I have a baptism to be 
baptized with, and how am I straitened 
till it be accomplished ; " or, when He 
asked the sons of Zebedee, " Are ye 
able to drink of the cup that I shall 
drink of, and to be baptized with the 
baptism that I am baptized with ? " 

It was not strange that Jesus by-and- 
by made and baptized more disciples 
than John ; for baptism administered 
by the disciples of Jesus in His name, 
standing for the administration of the 
divine truth in its completeness, would 
of course supersede the baptism that 
stood for an administration of truth 
prophetic and preparatory. Our Lord 
is the truth, not partial and of a day, but 
as it was in the beginning, is now, and 
ever shall be. In our Lord's kingdom 
the baptism of water stands for the final 
and perfect administration of God's 
Word through the Spirit of truth. The 
Word and Spirit are reproving and re- 



HOLY BAPTISM. 99 

forming still, but in a perfect way ; not 
for the sake of some temporary improve- 
ment in human conditions or formal 
amendment of people's conduct, but for 
the sake of creating men anew, for the 
sake of their eternal loyalty and bless- 
edness in union with their Lord and 
Saviour. Reproof is for the sake of 
reconcihation. The fulness of truth is 
the fulness of grace. Law and Love 
are one. In Christian baptism the ques- 
tion is not, *' Will you be better be- 
haved and more comfortable ? " You 
could address yourself to an effort of 
personal improvement, with some suc- 
cess in a way, without the revelation of 
the Son of God. It is the kingdom of 
heaven which the Son of God opens to 
all believers. Will you have the good 
that God has for you ? The universe 
cannot offer you more. Eternal good- 
ness will not allow you to be content 
with less. Will you be taught of God ^ 
— take sonship, discipleship, citizenship, 



100 SYMBOL OF THE FAITH. 

service, advancement, eternal life and 
inheritance in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Hol,y Ghost ? 
This is the question of holy baptism. 
The calling is one of infinite Love. 
'' Come" is the herald's word. Whoso- 
ever will — let him come and take of the 
water of life freely. What doth hinder 
you to be baptized ? Was the rite per- 
formed in your infancy on the faith of 
your sponsers that you would, on being 
duly instructed, accept the act for your 
own ? And have you gladly received the 
word ? Then you have accepted your 
baptism in accepting what it stands for. 
You have a threefold witness of your 
communion with Christ's church — the 
Water, the Word, and the Spirit of holi- 
ness. You were not brought to the 
baptism of water in your childhood, and 
yet you gladly receive the word ? See 
here is water : you can be baptized. 

But of what practical use is this bap- 
tism of water, some immature disciple 



HOLY BAPTISM. 101 

may ask, if not having received it, I am 
already receiving gladly what it stands 
for? 

No doubt the ordinance of baptism 
given by our Lord to His disciples, has 
not only a great spiritual meaning, but 
a great practical purpose also. And as 
in the economy of discipleship the prac- 
tical use of baptism depends upon its 
meaning, so too the meaning of baptism 
is much strengthened by its practical 
use. 

Our Master does not call us to an ex- 
istence of vague and general thinking. 
He carefully guards us against an un- 
practical habit of mind. We are all 
more or less accustomed to look at 
things theoretically. In a certain mood 
of mind one might possibly make light 
of the little seal upon a deed, might call 
it a trivial device — insisting that a man's 
word should be as good as his bond. 
iJut come into the practical sense of 
tne chmg: let the deed be yours — the 



102 SYMBOL OF THE FAITH. 

seal the legal attestation of your free 
act, on which the duties and rights of 
others as well as your own are depend- 
ing, — and you cannot think lightly of 
the seal then. The seal makes your act 
a recognized law of conduct to yourself 
and others; and you cannot go back 
from what the seal stands for, because 
you are held to it by a public constraint 
and discipline which is the government 
of the state. Just so, if you have taken 
baptism as the appointed way of declar- 
ing in brief your free acceptance of 
what baptism stands for, you have made 
discipleship the permanent law of your 
conduct. Not only your King and Fa- 
ther with all your brethren in the faith, 
but the world itself will demand of you 
fidelity. You have in Christ's gospel 
the charter of your membership in His 
family and school. In baptism you set 
your signature and seal to the charter. 
By that act you come into a recognized 
relation as a child of God and joint heir 



HOLY BAPTISM. 103 

with Jesus Christ; while without that 
birth of water and of the Spirit, your 
relation at best is that of a hopeful can- 
didate for the gracious adoption. The 
Christian family is spiritual and free. 
They choose and love the word of God. 
How, then, can God bear witness to 
your filial relation by sending the Spirit 
of adoption into your heart, while as 
yet you shrink back from signing the 
charter — the covenant of adoption, as if 
you were afraid the duty required might 
be too trying to allow of your accepting 
the privilege offered ? Or, is it that you 
feel obliged to seek proof that God has 
actually created you anew, as a condi- 
tion of your coming into voluntary co- 
operation with Him ? Baptism is to 
guard you against such a mistake. You 
are asked to come into voluntary co- 
operation with God, that He may create 
you anew. If Jesus shows what the 
Father from eternity chooses that you 
should be; only by choosing to be like 



104 SYMBOL OF THE FAITH. 

Jesus will you find yourself in the num- 
ber of His elect. Therefore take your 
baptism as the attestation of your con- 
firmed choice. Adhere faithfully to its 
intention^ if it was administered in your 
minority; or desire it ardently, like the 
honest Ethiopian who was as prompt to 
accept the gift of God as he was faithful 
in the charge of his queen's treasures, 
if you have not yet set to your seal that 
God is true. For be assured that how- 
ever much you may have profited un- 
der the administration of God's word, and 
we know that His revealed truth be- 
comes a common blessing in many ways, 
you are not in the perfect way, you have 
not frankly complied with the prescribed 
method of entering into the kingdom of 
God as a free citizen, you are not in open 
covenant to receive the complete re- 
newing of the Holy Ghost, — till you 
have received the washing of regenear- 
tion. 

Baptism is a sacrament; and " sacra- 



HOLY BAPTISM. 106 

ment '' under the Roman empire meant 
the military oath. The tribune of sol- 
diers, or colonel as we say, got his reg- 
iment together after their enlistment 
and picked out one of the men to whom 
he put the oath — '' that he would obey 
the commands of his generals and ex- 
ecute them punctually." The other men 
then came forward one after another, 
and took the oath in a short form, say- 
ing — " the same in me " — '' the same in 
me." It was the very starting point of 
military organization, discipline and ser- 
vice. Knowing the Captain of the sac- 
ramental host, knowing on what prom- 
ises the church is founded, what warfare 
the church wages, and that an eternal 
triumph is assured to every true soldier 
of the Cross, can you give your consent 
to the whole in the short form of bap- 
tism, saying — '' the same in me ".^ Will 
you be not only a child of God, but a 
soldier of Christ to fight manfully under 
His banner ? Then shall you be indeed 



106 SYMBOL OF THE FAITH. 

of His kingdom. Your baptism shall 
not be a superstition; but shall candidly 
promise the perfecting of that which 
concerneth you, as it shall stand for 
your eternal allegiance to God's truth. 
In this way baptism takes its proper re- 
lation as an act so free and final, that it 
is always active, always in full force and 
virtue, always holding the disciple to 
one line of duty and one hope of his 
calling, — always attesting the permanent 
law of obligation, under which the dis- 
ciple is led into all truth and duty. 

Baptism is by no means an act with 
which, having once done it, we have 
nothing more to do. And certainly our 
baptism will have something to do with 
us, even though we should deny the 
faith and duty it demands. This sacra- 
ment is a swift witness against disloyal- 
ty or negligence. 

If Jesus had been like other men — 
fond of his home and tolerably content 
with his father's trade, — we can conceive 



HOLY BAPTISM. 107 

that he would not have given his signa- 
ture to God's truth and his duty in the 
baptism of John ; or, that he might have 
shown himiself unequal to his high call- 
ing notwithstanding the sacramental 
acceptance of it. But Jesus is distin- 
guished from other men. He is the 
perfect man. His life exhibits every 
phase of moral excellence we can aspire 
to. And so, having entered upon His 
ministry, being led by the Spirit into 
a great struggle, it is not for Him to 
fail or to be discouraged. No soldier 
can follow where the Leader has not 
gone ; but seeing the banner of the 
Cross, we learn what the baptismal sac- 
rament involves. '' Why cannot I fol- 
low Thee now.?" said Simon Peter be- 
fore the crucifixion. Enough if in the 
extreme trial we can follow Him after- 
ward ! 

But are there any who find them- 
selves persistently indisposed either to 
live or to die for their Lord's sake ? Bap- 



108 SYMBOL OF THE FAITH. 

tism is no sign for them. The sign of 
the Cross is not for them. Much as 
they may long for some charm against 
the dread of death or the dread of some- 
thing after death^ it is not in their pow- 
er to conciliate the last enemy. So 
their fear holds out. Their case is that 
of Shakespeare's wicked cardinal: 

** Lord cardinal, if thou think'st on heaven's bliss, 
Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope. 
He dies and makes no sign." 

Under the Gospel there is no sign of 
hope to those who have no faith ; and 
faith having made its own sign in bap- 
tism will never lose that badge. Faith 
abiding and growing in all Christian 
effort and experience will be the fore- 
taste of heaven's bliss — the substance of 
things hoped for^ the evidence of things 
not seen. 



IX. 

This do in remembrance of Me. — Luke xxiu 19. 

THE revelation of Jesus Christ in the 
flesh as our Teacher and Redeem- 
er is for once; but the dispensation of 
the truth through the Spirit, of whom our 
Lord says, '' He shall receive of mine 
and shall show it unto you," is forever. 
So baptism, the rite in which we signify 
and seal our engagement to be Christ's 
disciples, is for once ; but discipleship, 
the life of spiritual docility and duty 
which baptism contemplates, is forever. 
It is eternal life to know God through 
Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. Cer- 
tainly baptism, of all decisive acts to 
which we can ever be called, is incom- 
parably the most important in what it 



110 FELLOWSHIP OF THE FAITH. 

professes and promises. It is our intro- 
duction to the right manner of living, — 
to a frequent recurrence of divine 
thoughts leading on to a confirmed 
habit of gracious conduct. 

The keeping in mind of thoughts that 
came to mankind with our Lord, and 
were the spirit and life of His teaching, 
depends very much upon the remem- 
brance and attention of the disciple. 
Once brought into the fellowship of 
Christ's followers, we are ever after- 
ward to know one Master of life ; and, 
as our Master very soon went away 
from the bodily manifestation in which 
He made Himself known to us, we have 
one thing to do, and this we do again 
and again, by way of remembrance : we 
partake in common of bread and wine 
after the example of our Lord and His 
disciples at the last supper. This cele- 
bration is called the Eucharist, because 
it includes the giving of thanks ; and, 
it is a sacrament also, because being in 



HOLY COMMUNION. Ill 

remembrance of our Lord, it calls up 
and repeats the profession of faith and 
pledge of fidelity made in baptism — at- 
testing as by a new ^' military oath," 
our enrollment as soldiers of the Cross. 
It is plain, therefore, that baptism and 
the Lord's Supper are vitally related. 
Both are for the same persons ; and, the 
first is received once in order that the 
other may be taken again and again, 
precisely as a person is once born in 
order that he may continually take the 
nourishment and exercise of life. It 
must be a living being that is born, or 
there is no natural birth ; and, there 
must be a living believer that is bap- 
tized, or there is no proof of spiritual 
birth. As the Psalmist says, " In thy 
book all my members were written, 
which in continuance were fashioned, 
when as yet there was none of them ; '' 
so the Christian may say, — in thy book 
of the new creation all my spiritua 
powers were written, which in continu- 



112 FELLOWSHIP OF THE FAITH. 

ance were spiritually fashioned, when as 
yet there was none of them — none, that 
is, to the poor view of mortals. St. 
Paul sets forth the origin and nurture 
of the Christian life by the example of 
Hebrew history, when Israel was born 
anew in the fact of being brought as the 
son of God out of Egypt. The people 
" were all baptized unto Moses in the 
cloud and in the sea ; and did all eat the 
same spiritual meat ; and did all drink 
the same spiritual drink : (for they drank 
of that spiritual Rock that followed 
them: and that Rock was Christ"). 
Their baptism being the announcement 
of new birth declared equally their en- 
trance upon new life ; and, of course, up- 
on the nourishment and exertion proper 
to that life. The inspiration of St. 
Peter flows in the same natural and well 
worn channel of speech. Addressing 
Christians as born again by the word of 
God, he goes on to exhort them : — *' as 
new born babes, desire the sincere milk 



HOLY COMMUNION. 113 

of the word, that ye may grow thereby; 
if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is 
gracious : to whom coming as to a 
hving stone, disallowed indeed of men, 
but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, 
as lively stones, are built up a spiritual 
house, an holy priesthood, to offer up 
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, by 
Jesus Christ." That ''spiritual Rock," 
according to St. Paul, following the chil- 
dren of Israel to give them spiritual food 
and drink, whom they knew only in what 
He was doing for them, becomes, in the 
similarly bold figure of St. Peter, the 
chief corner stone elect, precious, laid 
in Zion according to the Scriptures as 
the foundation of the universal church ; 
namely, Christ the Redeemer and Re- 
generator not of Israel merely but of the 
world. To know and to love Him is to 
be born anew as Israel of old could not 
be. For, the Rock of their salvation was 
following them in their ignorance instead 
of their following Him in His revelation. 
8 



114 FELLOWSHIP OF THE FAITH. 

Christ nourished and guided His Is- 
rael of old, that in the last times He 
might reveal the best things to all His 
people. For all He became incarnate, 
for all He gave His flesh and blood ; that 
He might become more to them than the 
manna of the wilderness, better than the 
water from the smitten rock, even the 
bread that came down from heaven — the 
true bread of the Father and the wine 
of eternal life. And if in obeying the 
voice of God spoken by His servants 
the children of Israel were to be a pecu- 
liar treasure unto Him above all people 
— a kingdom of priests and an holy na- 
tion, — certainly those who obey the voice 
of God in Christ His Son may well be 
hailed by St. Peter as '' a chosen gener- 
ation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, 
a peculiar people.'' They are all chil- 
dren of God by faith, in Jesus Christ. 
They all eat of the same spiritual meat, 
and drink of the same spiritual drink, 
according to our Lord's own words : 



HOLY COMMUNION. 115 

''As the living Father hath sent me and 
I live by the Father ; so, he that eateth 
me, even he shall live by me." 

Let us notice here how faithfully our 
Master guards us against being stupidly 
literal in the meaning we attach to the 
figures wherein He illustrates our spiri- 
tual nourishment by the common eating 
of material food. How did Jesus live by 
the Father ? By being one with Him 
in spirit — by communion of thought and 
purpose, by attention and obedience, do- 
ing the required act at the proper hour, 
in a word by love. How then shall we 
live by Jesus ? Even so as He by the 
Father: — in communion of thought and 
purpose, by attention and obedience — 
all the effort proper to faith working by 
love. Only, while we are here in the 
flesh our fellowship with the Father and 
with His Son Jesus Christ is through 
our knowledge of Jesus and our belief 
in Jesus as having come in our nature — in 
our flesh and blood. Through this reve- 



116 FELLOWSHIP OF THE FAITH. 

lation in the body is made known the 
purpose of mercy, the love stronger than 
death. Jesus Christ in the body is that 
Revelation of a day which utters the 
truth of eternity ; and so the incarnation 
is the nourishment of life eternal, the 
ground of eternal remembrance, recol- 
lection, knowledge, faith, hope, love. 
Feeding on Christ by faith, we live His 
life in the flesh. Having bodies pre- 
pared for us we learn to govern and use 
them as the instruments of our souls ; 
even as Jesus took the body prepared for 
Him, delighting to do the will of the 
Father in it and with it. Without the 
body of our Lord — we do not perceive 
Him ; we have no word from His 
lips, no healing from His touch, no 
dying and no rising again to show 
what immortality is. But having God 
with us, God manifest in the flesh, we 
have all that the prophets have spoken, 
and all that the apostles have testified, — 
eveU; as St. John declares, " that which 



HOLY COMMUNION. 117 

was from the beginning, which we have 
seen with our eyes, which we have looked 
upon and our own hands have handled 
of the word of life." What the Apostles 
saw and testified we learn and remem- 
ber. And thus through the body, in 
which our Lord was born and in which 
He suffered once for all, that He might 
rise superior to death, the eternal Spirit 
is able to teach us of Jesus Christ — the 
same yesterday and to-day and forever. 
The bodily manifestation is forever alive 
with what it brings to our knowledge, 
and nourishing to our spirits by reason 
of what it enables us to believe. There- 
fore, what our Lord asks us to do in re- 
membrance of what He was when once 
He ate with His disciples in the body, 
and of how He gave His body to be 
broken and His blood to be poured out 
that His disciples might eat bread and 
drink wine with Him in His eternal 
kingdom — that it is very important that 
we should do. It belono:s to our disci- 



118 FELLOWSHIP OF THE FAITH. 

pleship. It concerns our communion 
with the Father and with His Son Jesus 
Christ in the unity of the same Spirit. 
It is the commemoration of all things 
which have been written unto us that 
our joy may be full; as it is the type of 
all we are to do that our love and duty 
may be full also. Our feast of remem- 
brance calls forth our psalm of praise 
and hope. Our anthem is that of all 
holy worshipers ; — '' Therefore with art- 
gels and archangels and with alltheconi' 
pany of heaven we laud and magnify thy 
glorious name ; evermore praising Thee 
and sayings Holy, holy^ holy, Lord God of 
hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy 
glory ; Glory be to Thee, O Lord most 
High. Ameny 



X. 



Beloved, think it not strange, concerning 
the fiery trial which is to try you. — 
I Peter iv. 12. 

OUR Lord made Himself known to 
men, that men might become like 
Him. Beholding as in a glass the glory 
of the Lord, they were to be changed in- 
to the same image, — not all at once, but 
from glory to glory. 

In the holy Supper the Lord's death is 
shown as the crowning act of His earth- 
ly life. Till the disciple has crowned his 
earthly life with a dying in the spiritual 
likeness of his Lord's dying, he cannot 
dispense with this memorial. If we re- 
member that our Master has shown us 
the way of life from first to last, we shall 
not expect to enjoy the dewy morning 



120 TRIAL OF THE FAITH. 

without coming to the burden and heat 
of the day, — and just as little shall we 
look for the trials of life to cease till we 
have passed through the final trial of 
death. 

If a man cannot all at once be made 
complete in the likeness of his Lord, 
neither can all men become the Lord's 
disciples at the same moment. Jesus 
made disciples in person just as He could 
gain access to men and bring His teach- 
ings to bear upon their lives. He makes 
disciples through the church now in the 
same manner. There is no ceasing of 
the spiritual endeavor to call out from the 
mass of mankind those who at any mo- 
ment are bent upon learning of the great 
Teacher. The setting apart of disciples 
in general is on the way to the choice 
of particular disciples to particular ser- 
vices, — the twelve, the seventy, and so 
onward, v/hatever ministry believers may 
require. Christ the Head, Christians the 
body, ministers the organs, of one grow- 



THE CROSS. 121 

ing church — to be at last the sum total 
of those created anew unto good works : — 
such is the conception of our Saviour's 
kingdom. 

The selection of disciples is spiritual 
certainly, in as much as it is the result of 
spiritual efforts and spiritual motives ; 
but it is not on this account unnatural. 
Indeed it is in strict accordance with the 
nature of things. 

Trial is the law of life here below. We 
are on trial as to whether or not we will 
learn the lessons of faith and duty given 
us before we know our Lord ; and having 
been taught something of the truth, as 
the truth is in Jesus, we are still on trial 
as to how we will acquit ourselves as His 
disciples and servants. Whatever reality 
is presented to us, and in whatever way 
any teaching is brought to bear upon us, 
it is simply part of our common school- 
ing. Will we pay such attention as to 
understand what concerns us and be con- 
vinced of its importance ? And then^ 



122 TRIAL OF THE FAITH. 

will we have the decision and diligence 
to do as we have learned we ought to 
do ? This law of trial apparent in the 
lowest stages and in the humblest con- 
cerns of our existence mounts up to an 
unspeakable grandeur in the progress of 
human experience. But from its lowest 
form to the highest our trial is not strange 
to us. Our trial is always familiar, nat- 
ural—the simple fact that, such as we 
are and conditioned as we are, we are 
set to work our way according to the 
light that is given us, — be it the light 
that God sheds upon us in the common 
day, or the light of the knowledge of the 
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 
Not only is our trial in general not 
strange, but it is by reason of our trial 
that we cease to be strangers to both 
ourselves and others. To be untried is 
to be unknown. Nothing is proved as to 
what one will do and be but by one's be- 
ing and doing. Who will be Jesus' dis- 
ciples ? Who will be disciples of John ? 



THE CROSS. 123 

Who will say, — ''we are Moses' disci- 
ples ? " It will appear by trial. When 
the Master opens His school, it will be 
known who are His scholars. What dis- 
ciples will be worthy of the Master ? 
This too will be known by trial. Metals 
are tried in the fire. The trial of spirits 
is a fiery trial also. What does not be- 
long to a pure and godlike manhood is 
driven away as dross from the smelted 
gold. Is Judas dross ? Then away he 
runs to his own place from the fiery trial. 
Was Peter gold ? The fiery trial drove 
away that dross of self-confidence, which 
was the weakness of his character, and 
left him stronger in the true faith that he 
might strengthen his brethren. In fine, 
since Jesus was the well-beloved Son, 
doing all the bidding of the Father, the 
fiery trial, — needed indeed to prove what 
manner of man He really was, could only 
serve to glorify Him with the Father. 
Therefore Jesus did not treat the fiery 
trial as if some strange thing were hap- 



124 TRIAL OF THE FAITH. 

pening to Him. The fiery trial was 
eternally familiar to Him. It was the 
burden of prophetic anticipation. It was 
foreshadowed in all prophetic experience. 
He had not failed to count the cost of 
his enterprise. It was the fire of His 
love that really consumed the sacrifice. 
The passion of His charity led Him to 
endure the cross despising the shame ; 
and so the cross — the instrument of His 
final pains in the flesh — became the sign 
of all pains endured or to be endured in 
overcoming evil with good. The cross, 
from which the Son of God rose out of 
the fiery trial to His heavenly reign, was 
found to contain the secret of all holy 
sacrifice, and to be the sign of all spirit- 
ual conquest. The cross stands for all 
that purifying and testing experience in 
which Christians are brought to know, 
in whatever* degree, the fellowship of 
Christ's sufferings. 

Wisely does St. Peter strengthen his 
brethren, when, looking forward in expec- 



THE CROSS. 125 

tation of being called at length to follow 
his Lord in the very trial to which he 
was not equal when the Lord endured it 
for him, he tries to lead them also to look 
upon their trial as nothing strange ; — and 
exhorts them even to rejoice inasmuch 
as they are partakers of Christ's suffer- 
ings, that, when His glory shall be re- 
vealed; they may be glad also with ex- 
ceeding joy. 

To be identified with Christ, — this is 
that for which the disciple is trying, and 
for which he is tried. It is enough for 
the disciple to be as his Master. Noth- 
ing else is enough. But this sufficiency 
is not arrived at by any disregard of the 
natural measure of power and experi- 
ence either in the Master or the disciple. 
Jesus grew in a wise familiarity with his 
trial, and so was prepared to endure its 
most fiery intensity. It took about thir- 
ty years of quiet, dutiful learning to get 
Him ready for His baptism. Then, in 
the wilderness He went through that 



126 TRIAL OF THE FAITH. 

mysterious temptation, in which was re- 
hearsed, so to speak, all the trial of His 
public ministry. And, finally. His public 
ministry led Him into the sober, arduous, 
sublime experience, in which He learned 
as a man cannot learn apart from experi- 
ence, what was in men, what was in the 
world, what were the powers and evils to 
be overcome, what was the cost at which 
the triumph must be gained. By this 
path He came to that maturity of obedi- 
ence, whose prayer is : — ''O my Father, if 
it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; 
nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou 
wilt." 

We, too, who desire to follow our 
Leader, ought to begin, and- continue, in 
order to end our lives with Him. It was 
a mistake on the part of Peter to take a 
generous impulse as proof that he was 
strong enough then to follow His Mas- 
ter even to prison or to death. Many 
others have made the same mistake. 
The wisdom of our Lord seeks to save 



THE CROSS. 127 

US from such folly. He checks and re- 
bukes our imprudence, that He may give 
timely discipline to our courage and pa- 
tience. Fiery trials must not be strange. 
Our faith would fail were such trials to 
come upon us unforeseen. '^ Lead us not 
into temptation, but deliver us from evil." 
As to Jesus, so to every one of His 
disciples, — there is the world as it exists 
when he is born into it, there is the period 
of humble preparation for more trying 
service, there is service to try the ripen- 
ing virtues ; — and, in the Lord's time^ 
the crisis of death — the bitter cup which 
is our natural dread, but which come in 
what form it may, is to be accepted as 
the Father's will. All is foreseen. For 
all the disciple is to be graciously pre- 
pared ; — that he may salute his trial with 
the Lord's composure and submission, 
saying : — O my Father, if this cup may 
not pass away from me except I drifik it, 
Thy zvill be doiie. 



XL 

NOW THANKS BE UNTO GOD, WHICH ALWAYS CAUS- 
ETH US TO TRIUMPH IN CHRIST. 2 Cor iu I4. 

THE Cross means suffering; it means 
triumph also. Human duty as 
made known by our Lord is seen to de- 
mand sacrifices : — not sacrifices for theii 
own sake, but sacrifices for love's sake ; 
not sacrifices of a servile and poverty- 
stricken nature, but sacrifices worthy of 
man's possessions and God's promises, — 
sacrifices in the spirit and after the ex- 
ample of Christ. But, ''who goeth a war- 
fare any time at his own charges } " Who 
exposes himself to hardship, to losses, 
to casualties, to death, and does not ex- 
pect to have joy in the fruit of his labors } 
Certainly not the Captain of our salva- 
tion, not the soldier who fights under 
His Banner. 



TRIUMPH OF THE FAITH. 129 

Ordinary wars have no guarantee of 
what and how great their success shall 
be ; but the good fight of faith is not 
like them in this respect, having all the 
promises of God in its favor. Not only- 
do these promises set before the follow- 
ers of Jesus a future success above all 
that they ask or think; the promises 
are confirmed by a present foretaste of 
what their fulfilment is to be. The 
Lord saw His disciples again, as He 
had said; and, showing Himself alive 
after His Passion, the Heir of the eter- 
nal Father, He touched their spirits 
with a sense of immortality. Then it was 
they began to know the life to come, 
the joy and felicity of martyrs after 
they have once died. Then all the 
promises of God became yea in Christ, 
and in Him Amen. Nothing could be 
more positive. Their hope was so as- 
sured and substantiated to the disciples 
by the sight of their risen Lord, that 
they rose from the dead by anticipation, 
9 



130 TRIUMPH OF THE FAITH. 

triumphed in the flames of persecution, 
and made small account comparatively 
of the times and seasons through which 
the struggles of the faith might be pro- 
longed, since the final conquest was 
sure. 

Still how bitter is the thought of 
dying, and how repulsive are the ap- 
proaches to that change ! How chill 
and terrible is the shadow of death that 
falls upon us in the departure of some 
one from our side ! Think of this, and 
then say, if we have studied and felt as 
we ought the truth of our Lord's res- 
urrection ? What is done for us by 
the resurrection of our Lord from the 
dead ? To what hope are we begotten 
by that glorious fact.? We must get 
our answer by learning the fact, and 
what it means in connection with other 
facts in our Lord's revelation. 

Imagine a king building a triumphal 
arch to commemorate the great doings 
of his reign. Would he lay all the 



TRIUMPH OF THE FAITH. 131 

stones in fair colors, having them per- 
fectly fitted to one another, and leave 
out the keystone that is to complete all 
and hold all together ? Without the 
keystone there is no arch. Without the 
resurrection of our Lord, — our Lord is 
crucified, dead, and buried. In other 
words, we have no Lord. Our faith is 
vain. No forgiveness of sins is preached 
in the name of a king no longer alive J 
and immortality is not brought to light 
in the divinest human soul, if that soul 
be left in the grave, and that holy one 
see corruption. 

But now is Christ risen. Immor- 
tality in the Christian sense is not a 
vague theory, not a brave philosophy 
trying to argue down anxieties by show- 
ing how little we know, and pointing out 
that dying may bring us to a future 
better than the present. Immortality 
in the risen Christ is immortality in 
broad daylight, immortality in a v/ell- 
known person surviving death and dying 



132 TRIUMPH OF THE FAITH. 

no more. The immortal King takes up 
again the broken body^ that with it He 
may again hail His followers in the 
salutation of peace, and fulfil their joy 
in the assurance of His joy. He will 
ascend to His Father and their Father. 
They shall know him no more after the 
flesh. But He is living and reigning. 
Through the Holy Spirit of promise He 
will endue them with power from on 
high. He will be with them alwa3^s; 
and, after they shall have borne their 
testimony for Him according to the 
teaching and moving of His Spirit, they 
too being absent from the body shall be 
both alive in spirit and present with the 
Lord. His triumph is the triumph of 
all in whom the divine Spirit lives and 
rules ; while their triumph is His again 
by its being theirs. 

" Was it easy work for the first dis- 
ciples to believe all this, — and to be- 
lieve it more and more as they thought 
and remembered and had the Scriptures 



TRIUMPH OF THE FAITH. 133 

opened to them ? Was it strange if at 
first they believed not for joy and 
wonder ? Can we blame Thomas for 
refusing to yield assent to any common 
testimony in a matter of such infinite 
importance ? or be offended that, when 
the eleven saw their risen Lord in Gali- 
lee, according to His appointment, 
though all worshipped Him, some doubt- 
ed ? If faith works wonders on the 
hearts and through the efforts of men, 
is not faith itself the greatest wonder of 
all — the very power and wisdom of God 
in the human soul ? 

Mark how our Lord set himself to 
teach His disciples anew after his res- 
urrection. He sees them again ; but, 
during the forty days, it is not very often 
that they see Him, nor are his visits 
long. The very body through which 
He addresses Himself to their senses is 
changed. It is no longer a mortal body. 
Mortality is swallowed up of life. The 
risen Saviour in alive forevermore. No 



134 TRIUMPH OF THE FAITH. 

second death hath power over Him. He 
is not deHvered back to natural relations 
and customary labors — like Lazarus and 
the widow's son of Nain. He has not 
returned to show the heavenly things 
to those who did not believe Him when 
He was teaching them of earthly things. 
Indeed He makes no appeal whatever 
to that easy credulity, which delights in 
miraculous signs, because it knows little 
or nothing of solid conviction. 

On the contrary, from the height of 
His eternal power, and while showing 
the disciples that though alive He is not 
to be habitually known and embraced 
by the senses, He gives all diligence to 
make the disciples recomize Him in 

X O 

spirit and in truth. As long as they are 
slow to know Him in His wisdom, His 
love. His constancy, His submission to 
the Father, His satisfaction in His ac- 
complished self-sacrifice, — it is with re- 
buke for their unbelief that He appears 
in their presence, announces Himself 



TRIUMPH OF THE FAITH. 135 

in familiar words and acts, shows them 
His hands and His feet. But, when 
their hearts burn withm them as, unrec- 
ognized by their senses, He is communi- 
cating with their spirits — talking with 
them by the way and opening to them 
the Scriptures ; tiien how much it is to 
their quickened faith, that He is known 
of them in the breaking of bread, though 
only to vanish out of their sight. 

Forty days He is watching to give 
His disciples the final and most difficult 
lessons in the faith ; teaching them to 
know Him — not as they had known Him 
in the body, — but in the power of His 
resurrection. They are to be made sure 
that He is with them again, — the same 
spiritual person, witnessing to the same 
truth, as before they had known the fel- 
lowship of His sufferings. 

Wonderful was the Lord's victory in 
the souls of His disciples. Before His 
ascension, they had not only again 
looked upon Jesus their Teacher and 



13G TRIUMPH OF THE FAITH. 

Friend — they had seen the Ghrist their 
Lord with spiritual eyes. His ascension 
opened heaven to them. Their King was 
at the right hand of the Father. To 
die was a momentary pang ; to live was 
Christ — eternal felicity and triumph with 
Him in the welfare of mankind. As 
Stephen the first martyr among the dis- 
ciples saw the heavens opened, and the 
Son of man standing on the right hand 
of God ; as he died, calling upon God, 
and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spir- 
it ; so, in all ages, the faithful witnesses 
have welcomed death, — have triumphed 
over it, and made a gain of it. The grave 
became a vestibule of the Father s house, 
adorned with symbols of light, peace, 
joy — the sweet anticipations of the heav- 
enly home. The Spirit of truth, moving 
in the souls of disciples as on the day of 
Pentecost, is ever awakening them to 
the life of the resurrection. As the out- 
ward man is perishing, the inward man 
is renewed day by day. Death with the 



TRIUMPH OF THE FAITH. 137 

grave following after, that threatened 
the disciple with the loss of all things, 
till the disciple was stirred up to lay hold 
on eternal life, appears at last as the 
angel of deliverance to the soul weary of 
its prison and its pain. O death, where 
is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy vie- 
tory? Biit thanks be to God^ which giv- 
eth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ, 



XII. 

THEN COMETH THE END, WHEN HE SHALL HAVE DE- 
LIVERED UP THE KINGDOM TO GOD, EVEN THE 
FATHER ; WHEN HE SHALL HAVE PUT DOWN ALL 
RULE, AND ALL AUTHORITY AND POWER. — I Cor. 

XV, 24. 

OUR Lord's victory over death was 
not for Himself alone, but for all 
men as belonging to Him. He goes on 
from conquering to conquer. He repeats 
His triumph in every soul that departs 
this life in the true faith of His holy name. 
And, if any die in unbelief, still His is 
the victory. He is the resurrection of 
the unjust as well as of the just ; and, 
if the unjust are unjust still, refusing 
the life of purity and blessedness, it is 
for no lack of effort or sufficiency on His 
part. The Saviour is the Saviour of all 
men. But then all men must work with 



END OF THE FAITH. 139 

the Saviour, or He will of course be the 
Saviour " especially of those that be- 
lieve." 

Therefore, '' what shall I do ? " which, 
to be sure, is the great question of the 
hour, of the day, of the lifetime in the 
body, is great at last with the greatness 
of an immortal destiny ; great, not be- 
cause a man can do much at first, or 
much in a long time, — not even because 
one can ever finish a particular work 
tljat shall be very important in itself; 
but great for the reason that, while we 
can do absolutely nothing without God, 
God can do very great things with us, 
weak creatures as we are. The good to 
come of our least work as of our great- 
est, depends upon our doing what God 
would have us do. 

What shall I do that God may enable 
me to get on well in this world ? In 
what way will the Father of all use my 
efforts in providing food for me and for 
all His children ? And, since God feeds 



140 END OF THE FAITH. 

the body that the soul may thrive, what 
shall I do to nourish myself and others 
in wisdom ? How shall I live by what- 
ever word God sends me, and give His 
words to others that they may live by 
them also ? There is for us always a 
docile and obedient questioning, which 
is godliness ; and godliness hath the 
promise of the life that now is and of 
that which is to come. 

We cannot inquire in vain ; because 
He who prompts our questioning pro- 
vides for our instruction. There is the 
Great Teacher and the great example. 
What does the Son of God ask me to do 
as His disciple, as a citizen of His king- 
dom ? By what schooling, in what fel- 
lowship is He offering to teach me ? To 
what degree of well-doing is He propos- 
ing to lead me on ? All is in the simple 
—'' what shall I do ? " 

We see that no sooner is man made 
than he is set to work with God ; and we 
are told of no period in God's eternity 



END OF THE FAITH. 141 

when He will cease to work with man. 
Jesus said : " my Father worketh hith- 
erto, and I work ;" and the disciples of 
Jesus led by the spirit of truth are work- 
ing still, and still asking, " what shall we 
do that we may work the works of God ? " 
'' What shall I do ? " is the question of 
every man's physical necessity and of 
every man's spiritual understanding. 
Day by day, from generation to genera- 
tion, from age to age, the unending in- 
quiry is pressed ; while from the voices 
of nature, from the dictates of society, 
through lawgivers and prophets, men 
take commands of God. The world is 
the common school. The Lord Jesus is 
the Great Teacher. The experience of 
life here below is man's preparatory dis- 
cipline ; the kingdom of God above his 
eternal inheritance. To be is to be under 
God's government. 

What shall I do ? The inquiry is not 
only appropriate to all men, not only in 
order at every instant and reaching on 



142 END OF THE FAITH. 

forever, connecting each pulse of life 
with the service that knows no end ; but 
the question is one of infinite hope — in 
God. Having begun with making us 
natural men, what does that mean but 
that He has an end in our creation, 
which He will gain by making us spirit- 
ual men ? To make men as good and 
glorious as it is possible to make them : 
was not this the purpose of our Lord at 
His first coming ? Is he to fail ? God 
forbid. The New Testament tells us of 
a second appearing of our Lord, not as 
at the first to make disciples of a few, but 
as at the last to be glorified in the hosts 
of His saints, and to be admired in all 
them that believe. Having undertaken 
man's spiritual training. He will not give 
it up until the end be reached. 

And what is the end ? Is it the end 
of the world ? Let us say, at least, the 
end of the present order of nature in 
human society, the end of natural births 
and natural deaths, the end of our Lord's 



END OF THE FAITH. 143 

effort as Mediator between God and man, 
to communicate the divine law and life 
to the immature, the ignorant, the wicked 
of the human race. But why the end of 
all this ? Simply because all this shall 
have been fulfilled, the last child of 
Adam shall have been born, and shall 
have been taught. Through the media- 
tion of Christ every human being from 
first to last shall have been brousrht to 
know and take his own place under the 
government of the Father — each one to 
receive according to what he has done. 
We must consider, also, that in the 
language of endless life the end of what 
is passing means the consummation of 
what is permanent. Things that are 
perishable, things made to serve the 
Father's purpose for a time, come by 
and by to the last of their service : 
the transitory earth and heaven are 
shaken at length just once more, and 
then they are forever removed — gone 
beyond recall; while the things that 



144 END OF THE FAITH. 

cannot be shaken alone remain. This 
present world is good for its purpose, 
beautiful in its season ; but this world 
tosses us on troublesome waves, that we 
may learn to find our rest in God. When 
our God shall have taught us to trust in 
Him, and shall have trained us to hear 
His voice in the storm ; when all His 
waves and billows shall have served the 
purpose of His love, — then^ no more 
sea ! Then, quietness and assurance 
forever ! Then, the human family, that 
sank low, shall have mounted high, 

" Through the dear might of Him that walked the 
waves." 

Yes, the end cometh ; the end, which 
means discontinuance only for what is 
not fit to last, and lasting for all that is 
worthy to continue ; the end, for which 
all means were called into requisition ; 
the end, which is reached as the result 
of our Lord's mediatorial reign : all ene- 
mies subdued — God all in all. 

The end cometh — when } In what 



END OF THE FAITH. 146 

year of our Lord ? Is it for us to know ? 
Shall we seek a limit for the ages during 
which the Captain of our salvation shall 
be bringing many sons unto glory ? If 
God be for us, and the Son of God be 
content to serve as our Leader, shall we 
grudge our pains in the great cause, and 
pray that the time may be shortened ? 
Did all the good before our Lord's first 
advent die in faith — longing for the days 
which we see ? And cannot we die in 
faith, longing for the days of the Lord's 
final revelation and glory, which they 
and we shall see together ? Rather let 
us rejoice in hope, because the Father 
hath put the times and the seasons in 
His own power, not in our weakness. 
Human destiny is a short and pitiful 
story, when contemplated apart from 
the patience and power of God. We 
must not so contemplate it. To us there 
IS faith and hope. We are to believe 
in God and in Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Far off as the land of promise may be, 

10 



146 END OF THE FAITH. 

let US journey till we reach it — till we 
come to the place which our Lord has 
gone to prepare, to the city of God and 
the house not made with hands. Let 
nations and kingdoms arise and prosper, 
and be judged and disappear from their 
places ; let millenniums wear away and 
the world wax old as doth a garment, 
till the grace of the fashion of it perish- 
eth ; yet the Lord is not slack concern- 
ing His promise, but is long-suflfering to 
us ward, not willing that any should 
perish, but that all should come to re- 
pentance. 

Meanwhile, what you do, and what I 
do, let it be done as befits an heir of 
the Father's kingdom, a dutiful child of 
the Father s family. For, if the Father 
has not advanced our bodies or our souls 
in life on earth without our active co- 
operation, certainly he will not mature 
us in heavenly character and receive us 
to an everlasting mansion without our 
working with Him. He will use our dili- 



END OF THE FAITH. 147 

gence, employ our judgment, consult our 
taste about our heavenly home, as really 
as He does the same about our earthly 
dwelling. What must be, then, the 
eternal significance of that exhortation 
of St. Paul : 

'' Therefore^ my beloved brethren, be 

ye steadfast, unmovabley always abound- 

ing in the work of the Lord, forasmuch 

as ye know that your labor is not in vain 

in the Lord!' 



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